Alcohol Marketing and Youth in Ohio
Project Description
The Ohio Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth began in the winter of 2002 as part of a national effort at Georgetown University to monitor the marketing practices of the alcohol industry to determine if youth are overexposed to alcohol advertisements.
Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth trains local agencies and coalitions to create a grassroots campaign to develop strategies to reduce youth overexposure to alcohol advertising in Ohio. Parents and youth are engaging in activities such as composing letters to the editors of local newspapers, counting the number of alcohol ads seen during prime time television in one night, or clipping magazine alcohol ads in an effort to advocate for the reduction of alcohol ad placement in youth-oriented mediums.
Why the project was developed
At the request of Congress, the Federal Trade Commission reviewed the alcohol industry's marketing practices in 1999 and called for improvements, specifically recommending as a "best practice" that alcohol companies not advertise on television programs where the audience was 30% or 25% under the age of 21. Research by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth is showing that the alcohol industry has not implemented the recommendations and its self-regulation is not preventing overexposure to youth.
The Ohio Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth is working to raise public awareness of the issue and to change public policy.
Reports by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth
Radio:
- Youth heard more radio ads for beer, "malternatives," and distilled spirits. According to an April 2003 report by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth:
- Underage youth, ages 12-20, heard 8% more beer and ale advertising and 12% more malternative advertising than adults 21 and older. The exposure was even greater for the distilled spirits category, where youth heard 14% more advertising.
- Alcohol ads were placed on stations with "youth" formats. Seventy-three percent of the alcohol radio advertising in terms of gross ratings points was on four formats: Rhythmic Contemporary Hit, Pop Contemporary Hit, Urban Contemporary, and Alternative, that routinely have a disproportionately large listening audience of 12-to-20-year-olds.
- Twenty of the 160 brands delivered more radio advertising to underage youth that to young adults ages 21-34, an age group the alcohol industry routinely describes as its target audience.
For additional information about the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth visit www.camy.org
Television:
- Current television alcohol advertising practices expose young people to their products, sometimes even more effectively than adults. According to a December 2002 report by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth:
- In 2001, beer and ale companies spent more than $695 million to advertise their products on television.
- Young people ages 12-20 saw more television ads for beer and ale in 2001 than for fruit juices and fruit-flavored drinks, gum, skin care products, cookies and crackers, chips, nuts, popcorn and pretzels, sneakers, non-carbonated soft drinks, or sportswear jeans.
- In 2001, alcohol advertising on television reached 89% of young people 12-20, who saw an average of 245 alcohol ads each.
- The 30% of young people ages 12-20 who were most likely to see alcohol advertising on television saw at least 780 alcohol TV ads in 2001.
- Ohio had three of the top 50 television markets ranked by the number of alcohol ads aired in 2001:
Cleveland: #27 - 65,288 alcohol ads
Columbus: #29 - 65,097 alcohol ads
Toledo: #45 - 64,363 alcohol ads
In each market, including Dayton and Cincinnati, slightly more than 30% of the alcohol ads aired were more likely to be seen by youth than by adults of legal drinking age.
Magazines:
- America's youth saw far more alcoholic beverage ads in magazines in 2001 that did people of legal drinking age. According to a September 2002 report by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth:
- Marketers of beer and distilled spirits brands delivered more advertising to youth than to adults in magazines in 2001 - 45% more for beer brands and 27% more for distilled spirits brands.
- Marketers of low-alcohol refreshers, the so-called "malternatives," delivered 60% more advertising to youth than to adults.
- Ten magazines with underage audience compositions at or above 25% accounted for nearly one-third of all alcohol advertising expenditures in measured magazines.
Ohio Parents for Drug Free Youth - www.ohioparents.org