Alcohol Advertising in Magazines and Underage Readership: Are Underage Youth Disproportionately Exposed?

Details

• Alternative Title:
  Alcohol Clin Exp Res
• Personal Author:
  King, Charles ; Siegel, Michael ; Ross, Craig S. ; Jernigan, David H.
• Description:
  Background
  
  The question of whether underage youth are disproportionately exposed to alcohol advertising lies at the heart of the public health debate about whether restrictions on alcohol advertising are warranted. The aim of this study was to determine whether alcohol brands popular among underage (ages 12 – 20 years) drinkers (“underage brands”) are more likely than others (“other brands”) to advertise in magazines with high underage readerships.
  
  Methods
  
  We analyze the advertising of 680 alcohol brands in 49 magazines between 2006 and 2011. Using a random effects probit model, we examine the relationship between a magazine’s underage readership and the probability of an underage or other brand advertising in a magazine, controlling for young adult (ages 21–29 years) and total readerships, advertising costs and expenditures, and readership demographics.
  
  Results
  
  We find that underage brands are more likely than other brands to advertise in magazines with a higher percentage of underage readers. Holding all other variables constant at their sample means, the probability of an “other” brand advertising in a magazine remains essentially constant over the range of underage readership from 0.010 (95% CI, 0.007–0.013) at 5 percent to 0.012 (95% CI, 0.008–0.016) at 35 percent. In contrast, the probability of an underage brand advertising nearly quadruples, ranging from 0.025 (95% CI, 0.015–0.035) to 0.096 (95% CI, 0.057–0.135), where underage brands are 7.90 (95% CI, 3.89–11.90) times more likely than other brands to advertise.
  
  Conclusions
  
  Alcohol brands popular among underage drinkers are more likely than other brands to advertise in magazines with high underage readerships, resulting in the disproportionate exposure of underage youth. Current voluntary advertising industry guidelines are not adequate to protect underage youth from high and disproportionate exposure to alcohol advertising in magazines. To limit advertising exposure among underage youth, policy makers may want to consider regulation of alcohol advertising in magazines.
  
  
• Keywords:
  Adolescent Adult Advertising Age Factors Alcohol Alcoholic Beverages Child Female Humans Magazines Male Marketing Periodicals As Topic Public Health Underage Drinking Young Adult Youth

  More +
• Source:
  Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 41(10):1775-1782
• Pubmed ID:
  28905397
• Pubmed Central ID:
  PMC5657605
• Document Type:
  Journal Article
• Funding:
  R01 AA020309/AA/NIAAA NIH HHSUnited States/ ; U58 DP002027/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/ ; U58 DP002072/DP/NCCDPHP CDC HHSUnited States/
• Volume:
  41
• Issue:
  10
• Collection(s):
  CDC Public Access
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha256:f139275443958674ab02c5dd44bca4753ffb42696ebb3d41ed1e3ecf41918f27
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/49359/cdc_49359_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 593.30 KB ]