Hey, Advertising works!

A study linking alcoholic-beverage advertising to increased drinking levels by teenagers and young adults is coming under fire from representatives of the marketing and alcoholic-beverage industries.

According to the study, people ages 15 to 26 who saw more alcoholic beverage ads on average drank more than their peers in markets where there was little alcohol advertising

“Youth who lived in markets with more alcohol advertising drank more, increased their drinking levels more over time, and continued to increase drinking levels into their late 20s,” the report said. “Youth who lived in markets with less alcohol advertising drank less and showed a pattern of increasing their drinking modestly until their early 20s, when their drinking levels started to decline.”

“Alcohol is the No. 1 drug problem among youth and given how serious the product is, it needs to be treated different than dish soap or dog biscuits,” said David Jernigan, executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. “The industry has for years argued that ads had no influence on kids. This study shows the advertising is reaching and influencing kids and the industry needs to adopt tighter self-regulation.”

The study appears in the January issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine. [link]