Alcohol Advertising and Young People's Drinking: Representation, Reception and Regulation

250 Pages·2010·0.67 MB·English

by  Barrie Gunter

Alcohol Advertising and
Young People’s Drinking
Representation, Reception and
Regulation
Barrie Gunter, Anders Hansen and
Maria Touri
Alcohol Advertising and Young People’s Drinking
Also by Barrie Gunter
LOOKS COULD KILL: Media, Body Image and Disordered Eating (with M. Wykes)
ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN ON TV: Content, Impact and Regulation
(with C. Oates & M. Blades)
DIGITAL HEALTH: Meeting Patient and Professional Needs Online
MEDIA AUDIENCES: Volume 1–4 (co-edited with D. Machin)
GOOGLE GENERATION: Are ICT Innovations Cultivating New Information
Search Perspectives? (with I. Rowland & D. Nicholas)
TELEVISION VERSUS THE INTERNET: Will TV Prosper or Perish as the World
Moves Online?
ADVERTISING TO CHILDREN: New Issues and New Media (co-edited with
M. Blades, C. Oates & F. Blumberg)
Also by Anders Hansen
NEWS COVERAGE OF THE ENVIRONMENT: A Comparative Study of
Journalistic Practices and Television Presentation in Danmarks Radio
and the BBC (with O. Linné)
THE MASS MEDIA AND ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES (edited)
MASS COMMUNICATION RESEARCH METHODS: Volume 1–4 (edited)
ENVIRONMENT, MEDIA AND COMMUNICATION
MASS COMMUNICATION RESEARCH METHODS (with S. Cottle, R. Negrine &
C. Newbold)
Alcohol Advertising and
Young People’s Drinking
Representation, Reception and
Regulation
Barrie Gunter
Anders Hansen
Maria Touri
© Barrie Gunter, Anders Hansen and Maria Touri 2010
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work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
First published 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN
Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke,
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ISBN 978–0–230–23753–7 hardback
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A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Gunter, Barrie.
Alcohol advertising and young people’s drinking: representation,
reception and regulation/Barrie Gunter, Anders Hansen, and Maria Touri.
p. cm.
ISBN 978–0–230–23753–7 (hardback)
1. Advertising—Alcoholic beverages. 2. Youth—Alcohol use.
3. Advertising and youth. I. Hansen, Anders, 1957– II. Touri, Maria,
1977– III. Title.
HF6161.L46G86 2010
363.2920835—dc22
2010027516
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10
Printed and bound in Great Britain by
CPI Antony Rowe, Chippenham and Eastbourne
Contents
Acknowledgements vi
Notes on Contributors vii
1 Alcohol Consumption and Youth: Key Issues 1
2 Alcohol Marketing over the Years 26
3 Advertising and Alcohol Consumption in Society 42
4 Alcohol Advertising and Youth Drinking Behaviour 65
5 Orientations towards Alcohol Advertisements 93
6 Alcohol Representation at Point of Sale 117
7 I mpact of Alcohol Representation in the
Entertainment Media 132
8 Impact of Alcohol Representation in the News 150
9 Alcohol Marketing: Research, Regulation and Compliance 171
Note 202
References 203
Index 233
v
Acknowledgements
The authors and publishers would like to thank Oxford Journals/Oxford
University Press for granting permission to reproduce as Chapter 8
a revised version of an article originally published by Hansen, A. &
Gunter, B. (2007), ‘Constructing public and political discourse on alco-
hol issues: Towards a framework for analysis’. Alcohol and Alcoholism,
42(2), 150–7.
We acknowledge the ELSA Project (2005–7) of STAP (National
Foundation for Alcohol Prevention in the Netherlands) as the source
of the alcohol marketing regulation monitoring framework outlined in
Chapter 9.
We are grateful to the Alcohol Education and Research Council (AERC)
for funding the research project which provided the starting point and
much of the research for this book, and to the AERC’s external advisor,
Professor Gerard Hastings, for input in relation to the project.
Many thanks to our editor Christabel Scaife and her colleagues at
Palgrave Macmillan for continuous guidance and support, and to our
anonymous reviewers for their insightful comments on an earlier draft
of the book.
vi
Notes on Contributors
Barrie Gunter is Professor of Mass Communications and Head of the
Department of Media and Communication, University of Leicester.
He has written or edited 50 books and more than 250 refereed journal
papers, book chapters, non-refereed articles and technical reports on
media, marketing, management and psychology. His research interests
include advertising and young people, social marketing effects, the
impact of television on public opinion and social behaviour and the use
of the Internet across generations. He has recently published books on
The Google Generation and on Television versus the Internet. He is currently
co-editing a new volume about children and advertising.
Anders Hansen is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Media and
Communication, University of Leicester. Much of his research has
focused on media roles in relation to health, science and risk commu-
nication. He has published widely on media representations of alcohol
and alcohol consumption. His recent books include Environment, Media
and Communication (Routledge, 2010) and Mass Communication Research
Methods (edited four-volume set, Sage, 2009). He is currently complet-
ing a jointly authored book on media and communication research for
Palgrave Macmillan.
Maria Touri is a Lecturer in Media and Communications at the
University of leicester. Her research interests are focused on the effects of
media representations and framing on social and foreign policymaking.
She has done research and published in the area of advertising effects,
media-government interactions and new media technologies. She has
also worked as a consultant in the area of development c ommunication
for the Panos Institute.
vii
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1
Alcohol Consumption and Youth:
Key Issues
There is growing concern about problems of alcohol misuse and abuse
among young people. In the new millennium, government and medical
authorities have highlighted the health and social problems associated
with excessive alcohol consumption, and the issue has received increas-
ingly widespread media attention (see Prime Minister’s Strategy Unit, 2003;
BMA, 2008). While some evidence points to a reduction in prevalence of
alcohol consumption across young people in general, occurrences of
excessive consumption or ‘binge’ drinking are on the increase. Reports for
the UK in 2008, for example, catalogued significant increases in hospital
admissions due to drinking (BMA, 2008; Ford, Hawkes & Elliott, 2008). In
tackling the causes of problematic alcohol consumption, critics have often
turned their attention to the role played by alcohol advertising and other
forms of promotion (Hastings & Angus, 2009). Such advertising is often
blamed for driving irresponsible use of alcohol by encouraging people to
start drinking when still very young and by making alcohol consumption
seem an attractive and fashionable pursuit. Despite these calls for greater
control over alcohol advertising, in many parts of the world, the alcohol
that is consumed most often is locally made and not advertised at all.
Furthermore, in spite of the impression often given by contemporary
debates about alcohol that excessive consumption is a recent phenome-
non, alcohol abuse and dependence have been recognised as significant
health issues for many years. Alcohol consumption represents normal
behaviour in many countries. Historically, it has been embedded in the
social and cultural fabric of many communities for centuries (Heath,
2000). Although many cultures encourage and condition the sensible
and responsible consumption of alcoholic drinks, when appropriate
role models and social parameters are missing, alcohol consumption
may get out of control.
1