Alcohol imagery and branding, and age classification of films popular in the UK

Abstract

increased alcohol intake later in life. 2 The link between increased adolescent exposure to alcohol imagery in the media and higher levels of drinking has been well established. 2 This study gave a valuable insight into alcohol imagery in UK films as it is the first study to investigate this issue specifically in popular UK films. However, we question whether the use of 5-min interval coding is an appropriate method for measuring the alcohol use in films as it does not take into account the context of the alcohol imagery. We understand that interval coding was used due to time constraints but we feel that it may be more appropriate for examining tobacco imagery in films as the societal norms surrounding tobacco and alcohol use are different. Hence many people do not view moderate alcohol use in the same negative way as smoking and therefore we think that the authors’ recommendations for changing the age classification of films in the UK are excessive. We also question the use of the UK Cinema Box Office top 15 highest earning films to define media popular with adolescents. Downloading films is prevalent among adolescents and films watched in this way would not be accounted for by Box Office statistics. However, we do recognize that further research needs to be undertaken to examine the amount and context of alcohol use throughout UK media. We suggest there should be a focus on television programmes that are popular with adolescents as these viewings are likely to account for more of their media exposure.