Brand-Specific Consumption of Alcohol Among Underage Youth in the United States

Abstract

Background Little is known about brand-specific alcohol consumption among underage youth, as existing information is collected at the level of alcoholic beverage type. This study identifies the alcohol brands consumed by a nationally representative sample of underage youth in the U.S. Methods We obtained a national sample of 1,032 underage youth, ages 13–20, using a pre-recruited internet panel maintained by Knowledge Networks. Youth ages 18–20 were recruited directly from the panel via email invitation. Teens ages 13–17 were identified by asking adult panelists to identify a member of their household. The survey assessed the past 30-day consumption of 898 brands of alcohol among 16 alcoholic beverage types, including the frequency and amount of each brand consumed in the past 30 days. Market share for a given brand was calculated by dividing the total number of drinks for that brand in the past 30 days across the entire sample by the total number of drinks for all identified brands. Results The alcohol brands with highest prevalence of past 30-day consumption were Bud Light (27.9%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 23.3%–32.4%), Smirnoff malt beverages (17.0%, 95% CI 12.9%–21.1%), and Budweiser (14.6%, 95% CI 11.0%–18.3%). Brand market share was concentrated in a relatively small number of brands, with the top 25 brands accounting for nearly half of all market share. Conclusions Underage youth alcohol consumption, although spread out over several alcoholic beverage types, is concentrated among a relatively small number of alcohol brands. This finding has important implications for alcohol research, practice, and policy.

Portrayal of Alcohol Brands Popular Among Underage Youth on YouTube: A Content Analysis

“…Based on previous research demonstrating brands of alcohol reported as favored and popular among underage drinkers (Siegel, DeJong, et al, 2013;Tanski et al, 2011), as well as those appearing in popular music (Siegel, Johnson, et al, 2013), we chose 8 search strings reflecting a variety of brands across several types of alcoholic beverages. The brands were -Bud Light‖ (beer), -Coors Light‖ (beer), -Grey Goose‖ (vodka), -Hennessey‖ (cognac), -Jack Daniel's‖ (whiskey), -Mike's Hard‖ Lemonade (flavored alcohol drink), -Patron‖ (tequila), and -Smirnoff‖ (flavored alcohol and also vodka).…”

Measuring youth exposure to alcohol marketing on social networking sites: Challenges and prospects

“…34 To assess the impact of these agreements on activity on alcoholbranded SNS, and as a substantial improvement over earlier methodologies, we licensed the CrowdTangle Discovery App (Crowdtangle, Inc., Baltimore, MD, USA) that automates monitoring of Facebook activity. Following 15 brands found most popular among US young people (ages 13-20) in a recent national survey, 35 CrowdTangle permitted us to track and measure both brand activity in terms of posts to their pages, and user engagement in the forms of posting, liking, and sharing done by users of these brand pages. Posting means a brand or user has added an original piece of content directly to the brand's page, such as a comment, photo, or a video.…”

Alcohol facts labels on Four Loko: Will the Federal Trade Commission’s order be effective in reducing hazardous drinking among underage youth?

“…Youth consumption of flavored-alcoholic beverages: brand-specific research An internet-based survey was conducted to assess the consumption of 898 brands of alcoholic beverages -including 62 brands of FABs -among over 1000 drinkers aged 13-20. The findings indicate that in 2012, FABs ranked as the second leading alcoholic beverage type consumed, accounting for over 16% of the alcohol consumption market share (19). Nearly half of youth drinkers reported consuming FABs in the past 30 days and four of the leading 25 brands consumed were FABs, including Four Loko (9,19).…”

“…Nearly half of youth drinkers reported consuming FABs in the past 30 days and four of the leading 25 brands consumed were FABs, including Four Loko (9,19).…”