Alcohol Ad Spend on Radio Falling - but Ads Still Reaching Youth

Alcohol-industry spending on radio advertising decreased 38 percent between 2001 and 2006, but more than one-third of alcohol radio ads in 2006 were still more likely to be heard by underage youth than adults, according to a report from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, reports MarketingCharts.

In 2003, trade groups for beer and distilled spirits companies announced that their members would no longer place ads where the underage youth audience was greater than 30 percent, but in 2006 one in 12 alcohol radio ads were placed above that voluntary threshold.

(Also see “Youth Exposure to Alcohol Ads in Mags Declined from 2001 to 2005.”)

In five markets - Washington, DC, Seattle, Philadelphia, Portland, OR and Salt Lake City - more than half of alcohol product advertisements were placed when youth were more likely to hear them.

Other key findings of the CAMY study included the following:

• More than a third - 120,299, or 35.6 percent - of the radio advertisements for alcohol were placed on programming that youth ages 12-20 were more likely per capita to hear than adults.

• More than half (58 percent) of youth exposure to alcohol advertising on the radio came from advertising placed on programming that youth were more likely to hear than adults.
• Approximately one in 12, or 27,682, alcohol advertisements were on programming with youth audience compositions in excess of the alcohol industry’s voluntary 30 percent threshold.

• 18 of 143 brands placed 20 percent or more of their advertisements above the threshold.
• 26 alcohol brands placed more than half of their advertisements on programming more likely to be heard by youth per capita than by adults.
• Four brands - Licor 43, Yuengling Traditional Lager, Remy Martin V.S.O.P. Cognac, and Bud Ice Beer - gained more than half of their youth exposure from advertising placed on programming with youth audiences greater than 30 percent.

“The assumption that iPods and the internet have displaced radio as a primary source of entertainment for young people is wrong,” said David Jernigan, CAMY executive director. “Young people ages 12 to 17 are the most likely group to be listening from 7 p.m. to midnight, and our findings show that alcohol ads are still finding their way to too many young ears.”

Alcohol is the number-one drug problem among youth, and underage alcohol use causes 5,000 deaths per year among people under 21, according to the US Surgeon General. Numerous long-term studies have found that the more young people are exposed to alcohol advertising, the more likely they are to drink.

“Four years after alcohol companies adopted a new threshold for youth audiences, their ad placements are still missing the mark,” said Jernigan. “Ongoing monitoring is crucial to ensuring that alcohol companies do all they can to shield our youth from their advertising.”