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Liquor-Branded Advertising |
Data presented today by the Center for Science in the Public Interest show that advertisements for the new "alcopop" products are not only seen by millions of teens but are a major factor in influencing their choices and behavior. I appreciate the opportunity to join my CSPI colleagues and attempt to explain why alcohol advertising is so influential with youth.
Most advertising aims for the emotional centers of the brain for five very good reasons.
Advertising does not engage critical thinking. In fact, effective advertising studiously avoids it. Therefore understanding an advertisement's effect on a target audience needs to follow an "emotional logic," not a rational one. The ones that work, strike emotional bulls eyes with great accuracy.
Adolescence is a unique developmental stage with its own emotional bulls eyes.
Advertisements featuring young models aiming at these emotional targets are very effective at influencing youth. Effective adverts that promote age appropriate products and services are not the concern. However, these same strategies and techniques can also be use to lure youth into dangerous, illegal, and harmful behavior. When alcopop products were introduced in the UK and Australia in the mid 1990s, the stated target market was 18-25. The product itself is naturally attractive to children and youth with its sweet, non-alcoholic taste. It's like a candy cigarette laced with nicotine.
A product so intrinsically youth oriented requires producers, distributors, and marketers to exercise care and responsibility to make sure youth are not lured. The public health community, child advocates, and policy makers need to make certain that the industry acts responsibly.
David Walsh, Ph.D. is the president and founder of the National Institute on Media and the Family, Minneapolis, MN. He is the author of seven books and scores of professional and popular articles. He is a frequent guest on national radio and television and consults with the World Health Organization on the impact of advertising on the health status of children and youth.
Internet: www.mediafamily.org Phone: 888-672-5437 |
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Center for Science in the Public Interest
Alcohol Policies Project
1875 Connecticut Avenue NW, Suite 300
Washington, DC 20009-5728
Phone: 202-332-9110 * Fax: 202-265-4954 * Web: www.cspinet.org/booze
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