Abstract:Background
Low alcohol prices are a potent risk factor for excessive drinking, underage drinking, and adverse alcohol-attributable outcomes. Presently, there is little reported information on alcohol prices in the U.S., in particular as it relates to the costs of potentially beneficial amounts of alcohol.
Purpose
To determine the minimum financial outlay necessary to purchase individual brands of alcohol using online alcohol price data from January through March 2012.
Methods
The smallest container size an… Show more
“…Moreover, we found that percent of alcohol by volume varied greatly between brands within each beverage category (DiLoreto et al, 2012). Because of these variations in alcohol content and price, 21 of the 25 least expensive alcohol brands were priced at less than $1.00 per standard drink (Albers et al, 2013). …”
Background
Alcohol research focused on underage drinkers has not comprehensively assessed the landscape of brand-level drinking behaviors among youth. This information is needed to profile youth alcohol use accurately, explore its antecedents, and develop appropriate interventions.
Methods
We collected national data on the alcohol brand-level consumption of underage drinkers in the United States and then examined the association between those preferences and several factors including youth exposure to brand-specific alcohol advertising, corporate sponsorships, popular music lyrics, and social networking sites, and alcohol pricing. This paper summarizes our findings, plus the results of other published studies on alcohol branding and youth drinking.
Results
Our findings revealed several interesting facts regarding youth drinking. For example, we found that: 1) youth are not drinking the cheapest alcohol brands; 2) youth brand preferences differ from those of adult drinkers; 3) underage drinkers are not opportunistic in their alcohol consumption, but instead consume a very specific set of brands; 4) the brands that youth are heavily exposed to in magazines and television advertising correspond to the brands they most often report consuming; and 5) youth consume more of the alcohol brands to whose advertising they are most heavily exposed.
Conclusion
The findings presented here suggests that brand-level alcohol research will provide important insight into youth drinking behaviors, the factors that contribute to youth alcohol consumption, and potential avenues for effective public health surveillance and programming.
“…Moreover, we found that percent of alcohol by volume varied greatly between brands within each beverage category (DiLoreto et al, 2012). Because of these variations in alcohol content and price, 21 of the 25 least expensive alcohol brands were priced at less than $1.00 per standard drink (Albers et al, 2013). …”
Background
Alcohol research focused on underage drinkers has not comprehensively assessed the landscape of brand-level drinking behaviors among youth. This information is needed to profile youth alcohol use accurately, explore its antecedents, and develop appropriate interventions.
Methods
We collected national data on the alcohol brand-level consumption of underage drinkers in the United States and then examined the association between those preferences and several factors including youth exposure to brand-specific alcohol advertising, corporate sponsorships, popular music lyrics, and social networking sites, and alcohol pricing. This paper summarizes our findings, plus the results of other published studies on alcohol branding and youth drinking.
Results
Our findings revealed several interesting facts regarding youth drinking. For example, we found that: 1) youth are not drinking the cheapest alcohol brands; 2) youth brand preferences differ from those of adult drinkers; 3) underage drinkers are not opportunistic in their alcohol consumption, but instead consume a very specific set of brands; 4) the brands that youth are heavily exposed to in magazines and television advertising correspond to the brands they most often report consuming; and 5) youth consume more of the alcohol brands to whose advertising they are most heavily exposed.
Conclusion
The findings presented here suggests that brand-level alcohol research will provide important insight into youth drinking behaviors, the factors that contribute to youth alcohol consumption, and potential avenues for effective public health surveillance and programming.
“…Specifically, the availability of smaller container sizes that require a lower outlay of money may increase the appeal of that brand to underage drinkers who tend to have less spending money. Hence, for each brand, we determined its minimum container size and the minimum financial outlay required to purchase that particular product during the period January-March 2012 (65). Using these figures, we estimated the number of standard drinks of each brand that could be purchased for five dollars and used this as an additional control variable.…”
Background
Marketing is increasingly recognized as a potentially important contributor to youth drinking, yet few studies have examined the relationship between advertising exposure and alcohol consumption among underage youth at the brand level.
Objectives
To examine the relationship between brand-specific exposure to alcohol advertising among underage youth and the consumption prevalence of each brand in a national sample of underage drinkers.
Methods
We analyzed the relationship between population-level exposure of underage youth ages 12-20 to brand-specific alcohol advertising in national magazines and television programs and the 30-day consumption prevalence—by brand—among a national sample of underage drinkers ages 13-20. Underage youth exposure to alcohol advertising by brand for each month in 2011, measured in gross rating points (GRPs), was obtained from GfK MRI and Nielsen for all measured national issues of magazines and all national television programs, respectively. The 30-day consumption prevalence for each brand was obtained from a national survey of 1,031 underage drinkers conducted between December 2011 and May 2012.
Results
Underage youth were more than five times more likely to consume brands that advertise on national television and 36% more likely to consume brands that advertise in national magazines. The consumption prevalence of a brand increased by 36% for each 1.5 standard deviation (50 GRPs) increase in television adstock among underage youth and by 23% for each 1.5 standard deviation (10 GRPs) increase in magazine adstock.
Conclusion
These findings suggest that alcohol advertising influences an important aspect of drinking behavior— brand choice—among youth who consume alcohol.
“…There are, of course, additional factors to be considered apart from the potential influence of alcohol marketing, including differential brand availability by geographic region, parental and peer alcohol brand preferences, retail pricing, and beverage flavor/taste. We have published analyses of alcohol price data and youth versus adult alcohol preferences elsewhere (DiLoreto et al, 2012;Albers et al, 2013;Siegel et al, 2013bSiegel et al, , 2014.…”
Our findings suggest that youth are consuming a homogenous list of preferred brands regardless of the source of their most recently obtained alcohol or who selected the brand they drank.
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