The Beer Institute Advertising & Marketing Code recommends that: Commercial advertisements should not depict beer being consumed excessively, or by actors under age 25 or appearing to be under age 21. This study investigated the extent to which these code recommendations apply to representative beer commercials viewed by college students. In addition to studying how actors in beer commercials are perceived in terms of their age and drinking behavior, the study also investigated how demographic variables, personality characteristics, drinking behaviors, and drinking attitudes are related to perceptions.
Students watched two beer commercials that aired during the 1999 NCAA Basketball playoffs. After viewing the ads, participants (N=99, 56 female, ages 18-22) provided information about themselves and their perceptions of 5 actors in the commercials. Mostly, the respondents perceived the actors to be older than 21, while some (11%) perceived a few of the actors to be under age 21. In terms of drinking behaviors, all of the actors were perceived to drink more than moderate amounts (Mrange 4 - 8.5 drinks / occasion). This finding implies that these actors were perceived to be harmful or hazardous beer drinkers. The analyses also indicated the extent to which respondents' age, gender, drinking attitudes, and alcohol risk measures affect these perceptions. In sum, perceptions of these actors may meet the age criteria of the code for most college student audience members, but this at-risk group also perceives these characters to be heavy drinkers. This work was supported by NIAAA grants T32-AA-07290 and P50-AA-03510.
Learning Objectives: Participants in this session will gain an understanding into: (1) relationships between some alcohol risk factors and perceptions, (2) how a representative group of college students interpret aspects of alcohol advertisements and, (3) how laboratory experiments can begin to answer questions regarding media effects and alcohol vulnerability, and harmful drinking behaviors.
Keywords: Binge Drinking, Health Communications
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: None
Disclosure not received
Relationship: Not Received.