Abstract
BackgroundExposure to tobacco and alcohol content in audio-visual media is a risk factor for smoking and alcohol use in young people. We report an analysis of tobacco and alcohol content, and estimates of population exposure to this content, in a sample of reality television programmes broadcast in the UK.MethodsWe used 1-minute interval coding to quantify tobacco and alcohol content in all episodes of five reality TV programmes aired between January and August 2018 (Celebrity Big Brother; Made in Chelsea; The Only Way is Essex; Geordie Shore and Love Island), and estimated population exposure using viewing data and UK population estimates.ResultsWe coded 5219 intervals from 112 episodes. Tobacco content appeared in 110 (2%) intervals in 20 (18%) episodes, and alcohol in 2212 (42%) intervals and in all episodes. The programmes delivered approximately 214 million tobacco gross impressions to the UK population, including 47.37 million to children; and for alcohol, 4.9 billion and 580 million respectively.ConclusionTobacco, and especially alcohol, content is common in reality TV. The popularity of these programmes with young people, and consequent exposure to tobacco and alcohol imagery, represents a potentially major driver of smoking and alcohol consumption.
Highlights
Exposure to tobacco and alcohol content in audio-visual media is a risk factor for smoking and alcohol use in young people
Tobacco, and especially alcohol, content is common in reality TV
Since almost all adults who smoke begin smoking during teenage years,[6] and alcohol consumption in adolescence is associated with a higher risk of consumption in adulthood[7] it is important to prevent children and adolescents from experimenting with these behaviours
Summary
Exposure to tobacco and alcohol content in audio-visual media is a risk factor for smoking and alcohol use in young people. There is strong evidence that exposure to advertising or other tobacco or alcohol audio visual content (AVC) in the media, including television programmes, increases tobacco and alcohol use in adolescents.[9,10,11,12,13,14,15,16,17] Television programme content is widely seen, since an estimated 28 million British homes have at least one television[18] and in 2017 the average person watched nearly three and a half hours of television each day.[19] The Office of Communications (Ofcom) Broadcasting Code[20] protects under-18s by restricting depictions of tobacco or alcohol use in programmes made for children, and discouraging the glamorization of tobacco or alcohol use in programmes broadcast before the 9 p.m. watershed[21] or otherwise likely to be widely seen, heard or accessed by children
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