Original article
Adolescent Exposure to Alcohol Advertising in Magazines: An Evaluation of Advertising Placement in Relation to Underage Youth Readership

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2009.03.012Get rights and content

Abstract

Purpose

To investigate whether alcoholic beverages popular among underage youths are more likely than those less popular among these youths to be advertised in magazines with high underage youth readerships.

Methods

We compared the alcohol advertisement placement in 118 magazines during the period 2002 to 2006 for alcoholic beverages popular among youths to that of alcoholic beverages less likely to be consumed by youths. Using a random effects probit model, we examined the relationship between a magazine's youth (ages 12–20) readership and the probability of youth or nonyouth alcoholic beverage types being advertised in a magazine, controlling for young adult (ages 21–34) readership, cost of advertising, and other factors.

Results

Youth alcoholic beverage types were significantly more likely to be advertised in magazines with higher youth readership. Holding all other variables constant, the ratio of the probability of a youth alcoholic beverage type being advertised to that of a nonyouth alcoholic beverage type being advertised in a given magazine increased from 1.5 to 4.6 as youth readership increased from 0% to 40%. In magazines with the highest levels of youth readership, youth alcoholic beverage types were more than four times more likely to be advertised than nonyouth alcoholic beverage types.

Conclusions

Alcoholic beverages popular among underage youths are more likely than those less popular among youths to be advertised in magazines with high youth readerships.

Section snippets

Model of advertising behavior

We model the advertising behavior of alcoholic beverage types in terms of the probability that a given type will be advertised in a particular magazine. The dependent variable is the presence or absence of advertising for a specific alcoholic beverage type in a given magazine in a given year (2002–2006). Key predictor variables in our model include: (a) the demographic characteristics of a magazine's readership, including the total number of readers (ages 12 and older), the percentage of

Results

There were a total of 13,513 alcohol advertisements in the 118 sample magazines during the 5-year study period (Table 2). Whereas 23.1% of advertisements for nonyouth alcoholic beverage types appeared in magazines with high (20%–30%) or very high (30%–40%) youth readership, 42.9% of advertisements for youth alcoholic beverage types were placed in these magazines.

In probit regression analyses stratified by alcoholic beverage type (youth versus nonyouth), there was no significant relationship

Discussion

Using a large sample of magazines (N = 118) over a 5-year period, we found that even after controlling for young adult magazine readership, the percentage of a magazine's youth readers was an important predictor of which alcoholic beverages were advertised in a magazine. Youth readership was a significant factor in advertising placement for youth alcoholic beverage types, but not for nonyouth alcoholic beverage types.

Because we found a different pattern of advertising placement with respect to

Acknowledgments

Dr. Jernigan was previously the Executive Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University, which was supported by grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts, Philadelphia, PA, and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Princeton, NJ. Virtual Media Resources and CAMY staff were both supported by these sources. Data for this study were obtained by Virtual Media Resources, under contract to CAMY. Dr. King gratefully acknowledges support from Pleiades Consulting Group

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