Advertising of Alcohol
- Wagenar and Streff. "Public Opinion on Alcohol Policies"
- They find that there is a great deal of cross demographic support for a change in alcohol policy.
- Public debate surrounding alcohol policy should prominently feature the fact that the majority of the citizenry supports policy change.
- Those who profit from the status quo of alcohol policies have a vested interest in fighting any new regulation.
- Their results were not specific to alcohol advertising, but from their results we can safely assume that the public would be in favor of (perhaps not strongly) changes in policy as to the way alcohol is marketed.
- Discussion
- If the public supports a change in policy regarding alcohol, isn't this something that deserves attention from the news media? Why does it not?
- Public support for alcohol policy change does represent a market for news media covering alcohol policy change, even if it is one which is not currently saturated.
- The multibillion dollar advertising budget for alcohol represents a major challenge to the publication of stories dealing with alcohol policy reform.
- Jones-Webb. "Content Analysis of Coverage of Alcohol Control Policy Issues in Black-Oriented and Mainstream Newspapers in the US."
(Farai Chideya)- She finds that African-American oriented newspapers tend to cover different aspects of alcohol policy control issues than the mainstream news media.
- Mentions "Agenda Setting Theory," a theory which asserts that news media has a significant degree of control over their audience in their choices of what stories to cover and how much attention each story is given. Example: Mothers Against Drunk Driving
- In all three years studied, alcohol control policy issues are featured more prominently in African-American newspapers. This is consistent with our earlier discussions in class about how alcohol has a disproportionate negative effect on the African-American community.
- In particular, African-American newspapers' primary concern regarding alcohol control policy was the control of marketing and advertising.
- This reflects the growing level of community activism directed at exploitative alcohol advertising towards the African-American population.
- She finds that African-American oriented newspapers tend to cover different aspects of alcohol policy control issues than the mainstream news media.
- Discussion
- The differences in how alcohol control policy issues appear in culturally different media is indicative of the varying effects it has on groups. (Some groups advertised more to than others)
- While the media does have the power to "set the agenda," so to speak, it also may have its agenda already set by its advertisers.
- Murry, Stam, and Lastovicka. "Evaluating an Anti-Drinking and Driving Advertisement Campaign."
- "Donated Media" vs. Paid Advertising
- Donated Media refers to undesirable timeslots given to PSAs by television networks. Naturally, PSA's broadcast in these timeslots tend to be ineffective as they do not reach a large enough audience.
- Paid Advertisement refers to the model of television advertisement used for all other for profit goods and services.
- Their goal was to determine the viability of a paid advertising campaign for deterring drinking and driving.
- Their study used the equivalent of a 25 million dollar national ad campaign in one city, and they observed another city as a control.
- What they found was that paid advertisement campaigns are a viable alternative to traditional PSA campaigns in deterring drinking and driving.
- But how do we fund it?
- Discussion
- In order to be effective, anti-drinking and driving campaigns must employ the same techniques used to sell alcohol. The problem is that the fiscal benefits associated with anti-drinking and driving campaigns are not as clear cut as those with simply selling alcohol.
- Perhaps some of the money obtained from our country's problematic DWI laws we discussed earlier in this class should go towards more effective campaigns against drinking and driving?
- Saffer. "Alcohol Advertising and Motor Vehicle Fatalities"
- He researched the possible correlation between alcohol advertising (mostly broadcast) and motor vehicle fatalities.
- He finds that alcohol advertising is a contributing factor in the high level of motor vehicle fatalaties in the United States.
- The lives saved from a ban on broadcast advertising for alcohol could be in the range of 2000-3000 lives per year. Making alcohol advertising something that is not tax deductible could reduce motor vehicle fatalities by around 1300 deaths per year.
- The problem of Advertising Substitutions. If we ban alcohol broadcast advertising, they will most likely aggressively target other means of spreading knowledge of their product, such as sports team sponsorship and viral marketing campaigns.
- In the United States, the total amount spent on beer and wine is about three times that spent on spirits. The amount spent on the advertising of beer and wine is about 3 times that spent on spirits. Coincidence?
- He proposes a complete ban on the advertising of all alcohol, but acknowledges the unlikeliness of this taking place.
- He researched the possible correlation between alcohol advertising (mostly broadcast) and motor vehicle fatalities.
- Discussion
- If our country's goal really is to promote safety and well being through its drug policy, why do we allow the advertisement of alcohol?
- A legislated ban on the advertisement of alcohol would fit with the current political rhetoric in favor of the War on Drugs
- This legislated ban faces a major challenge in the millions of dollars spent by the alcohol industry in lobbying the United States Congress.
- While this is not an issue the US media can tackle on its own as of now, a complete ban on the advertisement of alcohol could free up US media outlets to be freed of the chains of their advertisers. If the money simply isn't there, they can't be influenced by it.