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Article Excerpt
The alcohol industry spends billions of dollars to promote its products. In the U.S. alone, total expenditures for alcohol advertising in measured media (e.g., print, radio, television, and outdoor ads) were $2.2 billion in 2006 (Advertising Age, 2006). Total expenditures to promote alcohol (including sponsorship, Internet advertising, point-of-sale materials, product placement, brand-logoed items and other means) were three or more times its expenditures for measured media advertising. This means that the alcohol industry spent approximately $6 billion or more on advertising and promotion in 2006. More money was spent on advertising alcohol than milk--137.7 million (Mothers Against Drunk Driving [MADD] 2007).
Although outdoor advertising comprises a small fraction of the total advertising in the U.S., the alcohol industry spent $186 million in 2006, or 8.5% of their $2.2 billion advertising dollars, on outdoor advertisements (Advertising Age, 2006). Outdoor advertisements are typically located on billboards, transit shelters, and bus benches. As in alcohol advertising in general, outdoor alcohol advertisements link alcohol with success, social acceptance, sexuality, youth, and power and are designed to influence alcoholic beverage choice and attract new consumers to the market (Alaniz & Wilkes, 1998).
Cities such as Boston, Chicago. Detroit, Oakland, and San Diego have mobilized and formed coalitions to implement local alcohol policies to restrict or ban outdoor alcohol advertising (Hackbarth, Schnopp-Wyatt, Katz, Williams, Silvestre, & Pfleger, 2001; Marshall, 2007; Tomsky & Yanochko, 2002: Taylor, 1990). For example, after more than two years of active work by the San Diego Coalition for Responsible Outdoor Advertising, the San Diego City Council unanimously approved an ordinance in 2000 that prohibited alcohol billboards within 1,000 feet of schools, daycare centers, public libraries, recreation centers, playground, and youth arcades (Tomsky & Yanochko, 2002). This ordinance decreases approximately 53 percent of billboards in San Diego that can be used for alcohol advertising. Baltimore and Oakland have also adopted ordinances to prohibit billboards that advertise alcohol (Scenic America, 2008). In 1997, Baltimore enacted two ordinances that prohibit any advertising of alcohol or cigarettes in public locations, including outdoor billboards, sides of buildings, and freestanding signboards (Scenic America, 2008). In 1998, Oakland adopted an ordinance prohibiting alcohol ads on billboards in residential areas and near schools (Scenic America, 2008).
Community concerns about the outdoor marketing of alcoholic beverages are well-founded. Some studies have found that alcohol advertising exposure is related to more positive attitudes toward drinking (Ellickson, Collins, Hambarsoomians, & McCaffrey, 2005; Snyder, Milici, Slater, Sun, & Strizhakova, 2006), and numerous studies have shown that exposure to alcohol advertising is linked to greater consumption. A study conducted by Collins and colleagues (2007), found that higher levels of exposure to alcohol advertising among young adolescents was associated with higher levels of drinking intentions and beer consumption. Several other studies have found that alcohol advertising is linked to both early initiation of drinking and increased alcohol consumption among youth (MediaWise, 2005; CAMY, 2006a; Stacy, Zogg, Unger, & Dent, 2004). Similarly. Caswell and Zhang (1998), in their longitudinal study of 630 beer drinkers, found that favorable attitudes toward advertising and brand loyalty at the age of 18 predicted beer consumption at age 21. Furthermore, in a recent longitudinal study by Pasch, Komro, Perry, Hearst, & Farbakhsh (2007), associations between exposure to outdoor alcohol ads in the sixth grade and increased alcohol-use behavior and intentions in the eighth grade were reported. One study examining effects of the amount of money spent on alcohol advertising found that spending was positively associated with alcohol consumption among underage youth, with youth consuming an additional 3% on alcohol for each additional dollar spent per capita on alcohol advertising (Snyder et al., 2006).
Early initiation drinking by youth has serious consequences. Studies show that individuals who begin drinking before the age of 15 are four times more likely than those who abstain until they are 21 years old to become dependent (Grant & Dawson, 1997; Hingson, Heeren, & Winter, 2006). Less affluent minority youth may be especially at increased risk for alcohol-related problems, such as homicide. For example, in 2003, among non-Hispanic males 15 years and older, African American males were 12 times more likely than Caucasian males to be victims of homicide (53.5 per 100,000 vs. 4.2 per 100,000; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC] 2006).
Research has also shown that African American youth, compared to youth in general, are exposed to more alcohol advertisements across many mediums. In 2004, African-American youth saw 34% more magazine alcohol advertisements per capita than youth in general, and specifically 21% more beer and ale advertisements (CAMY. 2006b). African-American youth were also heavily exposed to alcohol advertisements through the top 15 television shows among African American audiences, with the alcohol industry spending nearly $4.8 million in 2004 to advertise on these shows (CAMY, 2006b). Finally, African-American youth were more likely than youth in general to hear radio alcohol advertising--15 percent more alcohol ads in 2004 (CAMY, 2006b).
Only a few research studies have examined outdoor alcohol advertising in African American and other minority communities (Lee & Callcott, 1994; Mitchell & Greenberg, 1991). A study by Altman and colleagues (1991) of alcohol billboards in San Francisco found that African American neighborhoods were disproportionately more likely than Hispanic or Caucasian neighborhoods to have alcohol billboards, especially advertisements featuring malt liquor, a high alcohol content beverage. Van Beurden and James (1993) reported...
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