Viridiana Medina

Alcohol Marketing Receptivity, Marketing-Specific Cognitions, and Underage Binge Driking. Underage drinking is prevalent among teens and has extreme negative health consequences. One of the reasons its believed that this is happening is because of how heavily alcohol is marketed. Many theoretical models describe how advertising exposure could affect behavior among teens. Alcohol companies are bound only by voluntary codes yet they tend to advertise in many venues that are easily accessible to young crowds. The purpose of marketing is to increase demand and cultivate brand allegiance. The aim of this research is to better understand how alcohol marketing is associated with underage drinking. Many theoretical models describe how advertising exposure could affect behavior these models are largely based on social cognitive theory and how the message is interpreted by teens. Marketing receptivity was seen as a series of steps that involved higher marketing. Low receptivity was associated to brand recognition and how the teens remembered, moderate receptivity was the endorsing of a favorite ad, and high receptivity was those who owned or wanted to own items from the brand. The reason for marketing is to increase the demand by persuading the purchase of the product being advertised and to instill brand preference. This is done through imagery attributing meaning and emotion to the brand with life styles that appear appealing to a certain population. They recruited 14 yr-20 yr olds American kids at random to conduct this study. They did a survey via telephone with parental permission. Due to loss of follow up there was a

supplementary sample of 598 African-American youth added. The main outcome was current binge drinking. The measures that were used were How many times in past month have you had 5 or more drinks of alcohol in a row? The exposure measurement was How much time do you spend on internet or watching TV?, Do you own something from that brand? The main mediators were I see myself as a drinker , drinking is part of my personality , Drinking is who I am, How many people your age do you think have been drunk at least once? The parents educational background as well as household income also came into play. They assessed the binge drinking using a chi-square test and took all of the above information into consideration and are part of the estimation to help make the study more accurate. Out of 1,734 youth drinkers 65% were 18 to 20 yr olds and 51% were male. Half spent time playing video games, and half had some type of depression symptom in the past 2 weeks, and 73% reported that many of their friends drank. The youth reported some involvement in the marketing 33% owned something from their preferred alcohol brand and 18% had a favorite alcohol brand ad. Many of the participants said that drinking helped them feel relaxed. At the same time 49% agreed that alcohol would be more likely to make them have sex. This study shows that marketing is relevant and explains the relationship between alcohol marketing and heavy drinking. Young adults go through cycles were they have different exposure and response in which they look and take these ideas and incorporate them to themselves. Young adults that own alcohol brand items are more likely to drink alcohol. Also we found that teens find advertising in movies more suggestive than any other type of advertisement. While many may have a favorite Super Bowl ad that did not mean that they had any alliance to the brand.

There were serious outcomes associated with advertisement and binge drinking and its growing prevalence. This study show an important step into better understanding the link between marketing and binge drinking. Things such as drinker identity, brand alliance and the influence on serious drinking behaviors can be better understood and can help find a way to have better prevention guides. Through better educational and media literacy and support limits to marketing to underage drinkers.