Alcohol Marketing and Youth Drinking: a Rejoinder to the Alcohol Industry

Abstract

As societal concern has increased in relation to alcohol consumption and alcohol-related harm (Rehm et al ., 2009; Nutt et al ., 2010), attention on factors potentially influencing drinking behaviours has grown. One such factor that has been identified is alcohol marketing (Babor et al ., 2010). Numerous studies assessing the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking have been carried out over the past 25 years. Early econometric studies investigating the associations between total alcohol advertising spend and drinking behaviour did not find any effect (Hastings et al ., 2005). However, several recent sophisticated consumer studies, using a longitudinal cohort design, have found small but significant associations between exposure to, awareness of, and involvement with alcohol marketing, and youth drinking behaviours (Ellickson et al ., 2005; Collins et al ., 2007; McClure et al ., 2009). This is unsurprising given the potential exposure to alcohol marketing experienced by young people. Although the majority of these studies have been conducted in the USA, a recent study from the UK published in Alcohol and Alcoholism also suggested that alcohol marketing influences youth drinking behaviour (Gordon et al ., 2010). A briefing note published by the Portman Group (an agency linked to the alcohol beverage industry) presented the argument that alcohol marketing merely encourages brand switching, rather than encouraging consumption (Portman Group, 2010). The note commented that Gordon et al . (2010) found no association between awareness of alcohol marketing and either initiation of drinking or volume of alcohol consumed. This view was restated, and the topic debated, at the annual conference of Alcohol Concern in London, November 2010. The briefing note is selective in its reporting of the study of Gordon et al . …