Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2014 Aug;38(8):2234-42.
doi: 10.1111/acer.12488. Epub 2014 Jul 1.

The relationship between brand-specific alcohol advertising on television and brand-specific consumption among underage youth

Craig S Ross  1 , Emily Maple, Michael Siegel, William DeJong, Timothy S Naimi, Joshua Ostroff, Alisa A Padon, Dina L G Borzekowski, David H Jernigan
Affiliations

The relationship between brand-specific alcohol advertising on television and brand-specific consumption among underage youth

Craig S Ross et al. Alcohol Clin Exp Res. 2014 Aug.

Abstract

Background: Being able to investigate the relationship between underage drinkers' preferences for particular brands and their exposure to advertising for those brands would represent a significant advance in alcohol marketing research. However, no previous national study has examined the relationship between underage youth exposure to brand-specific alcohol advertising and consumption of those brands.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional, Internet-based survey of a national sample of 1,031 youth, ages 13-20, who had consumed at least 1 drink of alcohol in the past 30 days. We ascertained all alcohol brands consumed by respondents in the past 30 days. The main outcome measure was brand-specific consumption during the past 30 days, measured as a dichotomous variable. The main predictor variable was exposure to brand-specific alcohol advertising on television. The respondents reported which of 20 television shows popular with youth they had watched during the past 30 days. For each respondent, we calculated a standard measure of potential exposure to the brand-specific alcohol advertising that aired on those shows during the preceding 12 months, based on Nielsen (New York, NY) estimates of the youth audience for each show's telecasts.

Results: Compared to no brand-specific advertising exposure, any exposure was associated with an increased likelihood of brand-specific consumption (adjusted odds ratio 3.02; 95% confidence interval: 2.61-3.49) after controlling for several individual- and brand-level variables. When measured as a continuous variable, the relationship between advertising exposure and brand consumption was nonlinear, with a large association at lower levels of exposure and diminishing incremental effects as the level of exposure increased.

Conclusions: There is a robust relationship between youth's brand-specific exposure to alcohol advertising on television and their consumption of those same alcohol brands during the past 30 days. This study provides further evidence of a strong association between alcohol advertising and youth drinking behavior.

Keywords: Advertising; Alcohol; Brand; Underage Drinking; Youth.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Log Odds of Brand-specific Consumption at Different Levels of Brand-specific Advertising Exposure This figure shows the likelihood of a youth consuming a particular brand as a function of the youth's level of exposure to advertisements for that brand on one or more of the 20 television shows for which viewing was ascertained. Adstock units represent a measure of cumulative exposure in the month of the youth interview and the preceding months, with an advertising half-life of one month.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Comment in

References

    1. Ackoff RL, Emshoff JR. Advertising research at Anheuser-Busch, Inc. (1963-68) Slone Management Review. 1975;16:1–15.
    1. Anderson P, deBrujin A, Angus K, Gordon R, Hastings G. Impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on adolescent alcohol use: a systematic review of longitudinal studies. Alcohol Alcohol. 2009;44:229–243. - PubMed
    1. Austin EW, Chen MJ, Grube JW. How does alcohol advertising influence underage drinking? The role of desirability, identification and skepticism. J Adolesc Health. 2006;38:376–384. - PubMed
    1. Borzekowski D, Ross C, Jernigan D, DeJong W, Siegel M. The relationship between patterns of media use and alcohol brand consumption among underage drinking youth in the US Pediatrics. 2014 in press. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Broadbent S. Accountable Advertising: A Handbook for Managers and Analysts. Admap Publications; Henley-on-Thames, UK: 1997.

Publication types