Editorial: Alcohol Advertising, Marketing and Regulation

Transcription

1 Journal of Public Affairs J. Publ. Aff. 10: 1 5(2010) Published online in Wiley InterScience ( DOI: /pa.357 Editorial: Alcohol Advertising, Marketing and Regulation This Special Issue of the Journal of Public Affairs focuses on alcohol advertising, marketing and regulation. Excessive alcohol consumption is a major risk factor for morbidity and mortality in most developed countries (Rehm et al. 2009), and international data show that risky drinking levels are increasing (particularly in segments of the population such as young women). The role of alcohol advertising and marketing in increasing alcohol consumption has been a topic of debate in society and research for many decades, with some econometric studies reporting no association between advertising bans and alcohol consumption (e.g. Nelson, 2005) and others that bans on alcohol advertising result in lower per capita alcohol consumption (Saffer, 1991). Even more heatedly debated is the role of marketing in alcohol initiation among young people, including whether (and to what extent) the industry deliberately targets underage drinkers (e.g. Slater et al., 1996; Garfield et al., 2003; King et al., 2009; Chung et al., 2010). However, it is clear that children and youth are exposed to, remember, and like alcohol advertising; and that there is an association between young people s exposure to and liking of advertisements and current and future drinking. The evidence of a direct association between advertising exposure and underage drinking is mounting, with empirical evidence from recent longitudinal studies showing a direct measurable effect of exposure on drinking initiation and consumption levels (Robinson et al., 1998; Stacy et al., 2004; Ellickson et al., 2005; Snyder et al., 2006). The papers in this Special Issue provide further evidence of young people s exposure to alcohol advertising, and the effects of this exposure, using a range of study designs and across diverse populations. The first paper focuses on alcohol advertising regulation in the US. Thomas Babor from the University of Connecticut and his colleagues present the results of a study designed to determine whether the 2006 revisions to the content guidelines of the 1997 Beer Institute Code (US industry-developed self-regulation guidelines that describe unacceptable content and levels of youth exposure) resulted in increased or decreased likelihood for alcohol advertisements to include inappropriate content from a public health perspective (and for this content to meet the criteria for a violation of the Code). Their

2 2 Editorial assessment of six alcohol advertisements by 139 experts found a reduction in identified violations using the revised Code. This study suggests that, as has been shown in other countries, revisions to selfregulatory codes may serve to protect the industry by removing or revising commonly violated guidelines, but reduce the protection of vulnerable audiences by increasing the likelihood that risky drinking behaviours will be portrayed in alcohol advertisements. In the second paper, Sandra Jones and Amanda Reid from the University of Wollongong in Australia focus on an issue central to alcohol advertising regulation in Australia; investigating university students attitudes towards different types of sexual imagery in alcohol advertising. They find that both males and females appear to be offended by an advertisement which utilizes a degrading sex object but not by the mere presence of a sexually attractive female stereotype, suggesting that it is sexism rather than sexuality that causes offence. They also caution that current regulatory systems focus on the (usually explicit) messages in a single advertisement, but overlook the cumulative impact of exposure to a large number of alcohol advertisements. The constant use of sexism and sexuality in alcohol advertising has the potential to contribute both to a perception that otherwise inappropriate behaviour towards women is acceptable in the context of drinking and to the social norm of (excessive) drinking as an essential component of sexual interactions. In the third paper, David Jernigan from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and Craig Ross from Boston University School of Public Health review best practices in the measurement of youth exposure to alcohol advertising on television covering data sources, definitions of terms and specific measurement issues using examples from work of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and other public health researchers. Specific recommendations for best practices are provided for both the monitoring of youth exposure to alcohol marketing, and more broadly exposure to marketing for other potentially harmful products. Jernigan and Ross demonstrate that the databases and measures used by the advertising industry provide public health researchers with a powerful set of tools and metrics for assessing advertising exposure of vulnerable populations, but caution that these tools can also be misused and misinterpreted. The fourth paper continues on the theme of measuring adolescent exposure to alcohol advertising. Ilana Pinsky from the Federal University of Sao Paulo, and colleagues from Brazil, Canada and the US, examine adolescents and young adults exposure to alcohol advertising in Brazil. This is a welcome addition to the literature as most previous studies have focused on the US, the UK and Australia, and demonstrates that the issues are similar in a country with an emergent economy where alcohol advertising is not yet well regulated (although many would argue that alcohol advertising is not well regulated in the majority of countries throughout the world). Pinsky and colleagues conclude that in Brazil (as has been

3 Editorial 3 shown in other countries) adolescents are as exposed to alcohol as, and sometimes more than, young adults. They find an association between alcohol consumption and exposure to alcohol promotion, but cannot ascertain causation due to the cross-sectional nature of the data. The fifth paper focuses our attention on the exposure of younger children to alcohol advertising messages. Sandra Jones and colleagues from the University of Wollongong in Australia describe the results of two small-scale studies designed to develop an understanding of the amount and nature of alcohol advertising shown during sporting broadcasts on television in Australia, and to explore the potential impact of those advertisements on the alcohol beliefs of children who watch televised sport. They find that broadcasts of a high-profile sporting event contain a high frequency of alcohol advertisements, dominated by the products of the alcohol sponsors. Further, their qualitative study finds a high awareness amongst year old children of the alcohol products and brands advertised, and confirms previous research findings about the association between liking of advertisement and features such as humour, music and mascots. Importantly, their young participants identified alcohol as a product preferred by males, young people, people who were humorous and men who play sport. In the sixth paper Jon Nelson from Pennsylvania State University reports on longitudinal data from a panel of 17 OECD countries, addressing the relationship between alcohol consumption and a variety of economic and cultural factors. In the analysis reported in this paper he finds a strong negative relationship between unemployment and alcohol consumption; that is, a decrease in the rate of unemployment is associated with an increase in alcohol consumption. In an interesting counterpoint to the other papers in this issue he finds that the effects of advertising bans are statistically insignificant; that is, that banning advertising does not result in a reduction in alcohol consumption. This finding appears to be contradictory to other studies, including several recent longitudinal studies of adolescent exposure to alcohol advertising and subsequent drinking behaviour, and thus raises important questions about the extent to which population-level data can answer questions about the impact of policy interventions on specific sub-groups. In the final paper, a review of the literature on alcohol marketing and young people, Ross Gordon and colleagues from the University of Stirling and the Open University in the UK summarize the different findings from econometric and consumer studies and conclude that while many econometric studies suggest that alcohol marketing does not have a significant impact on youth alcohol consumption, more focused consumer studies demonstrate clear links between alcohol advertising and drinking behaviour. This is consistent with the different perspectives reported in the papers in this Special Issue, with the Nelson paper concluding that alcohol advertising does not influence youth alcohol consumption and the Pinsky,

4 4 Editorial Jernigan and Jones papers concluding that it does. Gordon and colleagues argue that, given the overwhelming body of evidence for a significant effect of alcohol marketing on underage drinking, and the patent failure of self-regulatory systems, there is a need for policymakers and regulators to intervene to protect young people from the effects of alcohol marketing. It is interesting to note that in our call for papers for this Special Issue we highlighted that there has been a considerable focus on alcohol advertising, among both researchers and policy makers, resulting in efforts to improve the regulation of unacceptable advertising practices (although there is considerable debate about the effectiveness of these efforts). Thus, we emphasized the need for research on the nature and effects of broader aspects of alcohol marketing on people s alcohol-related attitudes and behaviours aspects such as pricing, point-of-sale promotions, new media (such as the Internet and viral marketing), product placement and sponsorship. The review by Gordon et al. as well as other recent reviews (see e.g. Anderson et al. 2009) have identified a small number of studies that have assessed marketing activity more broadly (such as sponsorship, product placement in movies, ownership of alcohol promotional items, new media, viral marketing and price promotions); however, the majority of the published research (including the papers in this Special Issue) focus on alcohol advertising. There is a need to continue to conduct research into alcohol advertising and to use this research to continue to advocate for governments to take action to protect young people from these messages. However, there is also an urgent need for research into the nature, extent and effects of other forms of alcohol marketing; and particularly those forms of marketing that are particularly salient to today s young people, such as digital communications (including social media, online video, mobile networks and immersive virtual reality sites), event sponsorship and point-of-sale promotions. Even more importantly, given the increasing body of evidence demonstrating the harmful impact of alcohol marketing on young people s alcohol-related attitudes and behaviours, there is an urgent need for governments at all levels to get serious about the regulation of alcohol marketing. At the very least, policy makers need to acknowledge that the evidence from around the globe clearly demonstrates that self-regulation has failed and that there is a need for comprehensive and consistent government regulation of alcohol advertising. But wait there s more... Also in this issue, while not on the Special Issue topic, we are privileged to have a reflective end and start of year Commentary from Tom Spencer, Executive Director of the European Centre for Public Affairs, entitled On the Primacy of Process: Brussels and Copenhagen. Spencer raises his concerns about the lack of achievement at Copenhagen and his concerns at the EU s decline in influence due to organizational and political inertia.

5 Editorial 5 Finally can we thank the editorial board of the Journal of Public Affairs and Wiley s for their support in encouraging this work and for Professor Phil Harris who commissioned us to develop this research to inform policy makers and public affairs professionals after a special session held on the subject held at the 2008 Australian and New Zealand Marketing Academy Conference at the University of Otago. Guest Editors Sandra C. Jones Centre for Health Initiatives, University of Wollongong, Australia David H. Jernigan Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, USA References Anderson P, De Bruijn A, Angus K, Gordon R, Hastings G Impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies. Alcohol and Alcoholism 44: Chung PJ, Garfield CF, Elliott MN, Ostroff J, Ross C, Jernigan DH, Vestal KD, Schuster MA Association between adolescent viewership and alcohol advertising on cable television. American Journal of Public Health 100: Ellickson PL, Collins RL, Hambarsoomians K, McCaffrey DF Does alcohol advertising promote adolescent drinking? Results from a longitudinal assessment. Addiction 100: Garfield CF, Chung PJ, Rathouz PJ Alcohol advertising in magazines and adolescent readership. Journal of the American Medical Association 289: King C, Siegel M, Jernigan DH, Wulach L, Ross C, Dixon K, Ostroff J Adolescent exposure to alcohol advertising in magazines: an evaluation of advertising placement in relation to youth readership. Journal of Adolescent Health 45: Nelson JP Advertising, alcohol, and youth. Regulation 28: Rehm J, Mathers C, Popova S, Thavorncharoensap M, Teerwawattananon Y, Patra J Global burden of disease and injury and economic cost attributable to alcohol use and alcohol-use disorders. Lancet 373: Robinson TN, Chen HL, Killen JD Television and music video exposure and risk of adolescent alcohol use. Pediatrics 102: e54 e59. Saffer H Alcohol advertising bans and alcohol abuse: an international perspective. Journal of Health Economics 10: Slater MD, Rouner D, Beauvais F, Murphy K, Domenech-Rodríguez MM, Van Leuven J Adolescent perceptions of underage drinkers in TV beer ads. Journal of Alcohol and Drug Education 42: Snyder LB, Milici FF, Slater M, Sun H, Strizhakova Y Effects of alcohol advertising exposure on drinking among youth. Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine 160: Stacy AW, Zogg JB, Unger JB, Dent CW Exposure to televised alcohol ads and subsequent adolescent alcohol use. American Journal of Health Behavior 28: