Business-Managed Democracy

“Business-managed democracies are those in which the political and cultural arrangements are managed in the interests of business.”
Sharon Beder, 2009.

 

 

 

For more on this subject see:

This Little Kiddy Went to Market:
The Corporate Capture of Childhood, Pluto Press, London, 2009.

Book cover

Selling the Work Ethic: From Puritan Pulpit to Corporate PR, Zed Books, London and Scribe, Melbourne, 2000.

Book Cover

pointer Business-Managed Democracy » Culture » Consumerism » Advertising to Children » Alcohol Advertising

Business-Managed Culture

Advertising Alcohol to Children

reference
Reference:‘The Facts About Marketing to Kids’, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, February 2005 (pdf); ‘"Lethal Creature" Advertising’, Schmio Awards, accessed 14 August 1998; Susan Linn, Consuming Kids: The Hostile Takeover of Childhood, New York, The New Press, 2004, pp.157-166.

drinking alcoholThe age at which children begin drinking alcohol is dropping and is now around 13, on average in the US. Underage drinkers make up a significant proportion – an estimated 20 per cent – of the US market. It is for this reason that alcohol manufacturers spend so much on advertising during television programmes, and with radio stations and magazines favoured by teens, as well as internet sites crammed with games, freebies, contests, downloads and music reviews. Teens see more alcohol advertisements in the magazines they read and hear more on the radio stations they listen to, than adults. The most popular television programmes for teenagers feature alcohol advertisements – more than 5000 ads were shown during the 15 most popular of these shows during 2002 at a cost of $52 million.

reference
Reference: Rebecca L. Collins, et al., ‘Early Adolescent Exposure to Alcohol and Its Relationship to Underage Drinking’, Journal of Adolescent Health, 13 April, 2007.

Studies have found that the more television a child watches in 9th grade, the more likely they will begin drinking in the following year and a half. One study found that exposure in 6th grade to beer advertisements strongly increased the likelihood that the child would drink alcohol in the following year. Yet alcohol is a major cause of death for adolescents and kids who start drinking before they are fifteen are more likely to become alcoholics later in life.

reference
Reference: Diana Bagnall, ‘What's Driving Our Kids to Drink’, Bulletin, 9 September, 2003.

In Australia 75 per cent of teenagers between 14 and 17 consume alcohol at risk levels. alcopopsAlcohol marketers promote pre-mixed spirit drinks or alcopops: “bright, sweet drinks that are packaged like soft drinks, and slip down the throat just as easily”. Such drinks, together with their websites, attract children to alcoholic drinks at an early age and consequently, in the 1990s, became the fastest growing drinks market globally.

reference
Reference: Jill Stark, ‘Revealed: Alcopops Target Teens’, Sydney Morning Herald, 6 August, 2007, pp. 1,2.

An alcohol industry insider admitted that the sweet taste of alcopops was an effort to mask the alcohol taste and be appealing to young palates that were more used to sugary drinks. In this way they would not only buy the product but get used to drinking alcohol.

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See also: Advertising | on Television | on the Internet | Unhealthy Food Advertising | via Mobile Phones | in Movies and TV Programmes | via Toys | via Childrens Clubs | with Cartoons and Characters | in Video Games
See also: Movies and TV: Alcohol and Tobacco Product Placement

© 2012 Sharon Beder
http://www.herinst.org/BusinessManagedDemocracy/culture/consumerism/alcohol.html