TOBACCO AND ALCOHOL ADVERTISING IN TELEVISED SPORTS: TIME TO FOCUS ON POLICY CHANGE

Abstract

Zwarun1 provided additional evidence for the presence of alcohol and tobacco advertising during televised sporting events. Her follow-up to Madden and Grube’s2 analysis of alcohol and tobacco advertising in televised sports demonstrates that although certain types of advertisements have decreased, the alcohol and tobacco industries have adapted to advertising restrictions such as those included in the Master Settlement Agreement, the massive lawsuit between state attorneys general and the tobacco industry. However, we believe Zwarun did not take her recommendations far enough. Although the article mentions the importance of the Master Settlement Agreement in reducing the frequency and type of ads, the author did not suggest specific policy changes that are needed to limit alcohol and tobacco marketing in televised sports. It has been estimated that youths make up 13% of the national television viewing audience for all types of programming,3 and most youths report watching sporting events on television.4 Numerous studies have provided evidence for a connection between tobacco and alcohol advertising during sporting events and use of those products.5,6 On the basis of the growing evidence for the relationship between tobacco and alcohol advertising and youth consumption of these products, we suggest that a shift is needed to focus on policy change. The surgeon general and others have described the connection between policy and behavior change and recommend policies as a behavior change strategy.7–9 International tobacco marketing standards stipulate that tobacco ads should not “be of particular appeal to youth” or be shown at events with more than 25% young viewers10; the alcohol industry marketing code11 prohibits ads intended to appeal to youths. Implementation of policies to further restrict alcohol and tobacco advertising in televised sports will be challenging; therefore, it will be important for alcohol and tobacco researchers and policy advocates to work collaboratively. For example, efforts could jointly focus on developing policy to prohibit sports sponsorships for alcohol and tobacco products during televised sporting events with a youth audience of 15% or higher, a more specific and stringent standard for both industries. By working together on policy change, we believe that more substantive change can occur to prevent or reduce underage use of tobacco and alcohol. As clearly illustrated by Zwarun, the problem of alcohol and tobacco advertising in televised sports has been well described. We are overdue to move to the next step and devise effective population-level solutions to youths’ exposure to tobacco and alcohol advertising.