Backed by a recent study showing public support for restrictions on alcohol advertising, activists are pushing forward with a campaign to "childproof" the more than $1 billion worth of beer, wine and liquor ads that appear on television, radio, billboards, and in newspapers and at community and college events each year.A survey released last fall by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation found high levels of concern among Americans about underage drinking, as well as solid support for policy changes to address the link between alcohol advertising and youth alcohol consumption. For example, 67 percent of those surveyed said they oppose the use of cartoon characters and youth-oriented music in alcohol ads; 63 percent said they would support a ban on billboard advertising of alcohol products; and 59 percent would prohibit the use of sports teams and symbols in alcohol ads.
Perhaps most significantly, 61 percent of Americans said they would support a ban on television ads for beer and wine, and two-thirds of respondents said that liquor ads should be banned from TV.
That's welcome news to advocates like Diana Conti, executive director of the Marin Institute, who would like the public to begin viewing alcohol ads in the same negative light that has fallen over tobacco ads in recent years. "The general public believes that Joe Camel has something to do with teen smoking," Conti told Join Together. "I look at the Bud frogs and don't see much difference. That's what we're banking on."
For its part, the alcohol industry vehemently denies that any link exists between their advertising and youth alcohol consumption, as well as the assertion that alcohol ads -- such as those featuring animated frogs and lizards -- are aimed at youth. After years spent largely on the sidelines, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is now poised to step into the debate with a report that will weigh whether the alcohol industry is living up to its voluntary self-regulation codes, which includes prohibitions on alcohol advertising that appeals to youth.
The FTC, report, due out within the next month or so, will look at Internet advertising as well as print and broadcast ads for alcohol, and will examine ad content and the composition of the audience that is being reached with the ads. Janet Evans, an FTC staffer working on the report, said that the agency has gathered ad samples and data from major beer industry groups as well as soliciting input from groups like the Marin Institute and the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI).
Evans would not discuss the report's findings or recommendations, but said, "Our belief is that self-regulation is the first and best option for industry." She added, however, that, "We're looking for self-regulation with teeth."
Also, the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) and the federal Center for Substance Abuse Prevention (CSAP) last year launched a longitudinal research study to determine whether alcohol advertising affects initiation and continued consumption among youth. "Considered collectively, the completed research ... suggests that alcohol advertising affects drinking behavior of youth and that this effect is mediated in part by alcohol expectancies (i.e. one's personal beliefs about the immediate benefits and hazards of alcohol consumption for oneself," NIAAA noted in its Feb. 2, 1998 grant announcement. "There is evidence from some studies that alcohol expectancies are related to current and future alcohol use and, from other studies, evidence that awareness of alcohol advertising is related to alcohol expectancies and intentions to drink.
"However, there have been no published comprehensive studies within a single population that explore causal relationships among advertising, alcohol use by youth, expectancies, and other potential mediators and moderators," NIAAA noted.
The five-year longitudinal studies are expected to provide the most comprehensive research data yet on the link between alcohol advertising and underage drinking. Three grants totaling $1.5 million were awarded to the Rand Institute in Santa Monica, Calif., the Prevention Research Institute in Berkeley, Calif., and the University of Southern California's Institute for Prevention Research.
The Rand study will examine the impact of advertising on South Dakota adolescents (including a group of Native American youths) beginning in 8th grade as well as the impact of prevention programming and local alcohol policies on attitudes and expectancies toward drinking. The three studies undertaken by the Prevention Research Institute will include a three-year longitudinal survey of 1,000 9- to 16-year-olds, a content analysis of alcohol ads, and a comparison of youth responses to alcohol and other advertising. Finally, the USC study will assess the cognitive impact both of alcohol ads and mediation efforts.
Susan Martin, Ph.D., who oversees the alcohol advertising studies for NIAAA, said that the agency -- which previously had done little research on advertising -- was looking for a single, overarching longitudinal study that would answer the question of whether alcohol ads affect teen drinking, once and for all. With three separate studies, there's the chance for conflicting results -- but also for a more powerful sense of agreement if all reach similar conclusions, she said. And that could be very important, since the alcohol industry is almost certain to challenge any result that appears critical of its advertising practices.
Unfortunately, the field will have to wait another five years for the results of this research. "If you're going to do a longitudinal study, you have to look at people over time," noted Martin. "There's really no way to accelerate that."
While alcohol-advertising advocates are taking a wait-and-see attitude about the federal reports, they believe that industry self-policing is a failure and should be replaced by stricter government regulations. For example, they point to a 1996 study by the Center on Alcohol Advertising that shows that children are more familiar with the Budweiser frogs than Smokey the Bear, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers or Tony the Tiger. Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD), which has been increasingly visible on the issue of youth-oriented advertising in recent years, singled out Budweiser and brewer Anheuser-Busch for criticism during last year's Super Bowl. "Campaigns such as the Budweiser lizards and frogs are unconscionable at a time when underage drinking is at epidemic levels," said MADD President Karolyn Nunnallee. "Alcohol marketers are bombarding our children with characters that look like they belong on Saturday morning cartoons, and it's absurd to think these don't affect our young people."
At the moment, however, there is almost no legislative activity in Washington regarding regulation of alcohol advertising. In fact, the strongest advocate for such legislation in either house of Congress, Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II (D-Mass.), recently retired from politics. Even when Kennedy was still in Congress, his SAFE alcohol advertising bill went nowhere.
The Marin Institute's Conti notes that the alcohol industry remains a very strong player in Washington and has largely avoided having its reputation tarnished by its advertising practices, unlike the tobacco industry. Conti and other hope to change that by continuing to point out what they consider abusive advertising practices by the industry and building grassroots support for legislative action.
Long-term trends show that alcohol consumption among youth has leveled off, and the alcohol industry claims that this proves that their ads don't impact kids. But prevention advocates say this progress is due to enforcement of the age-21 laws and stricter enforcement of drunk-driving laws. "We say that public-health measures work, and we need more of them," Conti said.
Boston University School of Public Health 
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