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Booze ads blamed in new trend
Binge drinking said on rise among girls.

Chicago Tribune

Published Thursday, March 30, 2006

CHICAGO - Binge drinking is growing at a much faster rate among girls than boys, say authors of a new study who believe the report should put more heat on the alcohol industry to rein in its beer and liquor advertising on programs viewed by teens and young adults.

A status report released Monday by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University shows girls are binge drinking more often just as binge rates among boys decline. The study also indicates girls are turning to hard liquor just as advertising for "alcopops" and alcoholic lemonades is on the rise.

"People expect teenage boys to drink," said David Jernigan, executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth. "They have not historically expected girls to. Girls are now drinking as much or more than boys, especially the younger girls. They are drinking liquor. The boys are still drinking beer.

"The more alcohol advertising kids are exposed to, the more likely they are to drink, and drink heavily," Jernigan said. "We have stronger and stronger research showing there is a link to advertising."

In one example, the report said exposure of young people to alcohol advertising has risen dramatically. The average number of alcohol ads seen by those ages 12 to 20 increased 32 percent, to 276 annually, between 2001 and 2004, the most recent year the group said it could tally data.

Alcohol ads have been criticized for making drinking appear to be part of a full and active life.

Anheuser-Busch Cos., for example, has ads for its Bacardi Silver Watermelon malt beverage, which the company launched last year, featuring young men and women and telling them to "make the night" right. Ads for the brewer’s Michelob Ultra beer feature young, healthy men and women who top off their workouts together with a beer afterward.

But Anheuser-Busch says it places its ads "only where at least 70 percent of the audience is expected to be 21 or older."

Further, the beer and distilled spirits industries take issue with the report’s findings, saying the companies don’t believe binge drinking among males and females is increasing. Rather, they say it is declining.

"As a society, it is important to recognize this positive norm," Francine Katz, Anheuser-Busch’s vice president of communications and consumer affairs, said in a statement. "According to the federal government’s National Survey on Drug Use and Health 2005 report, 82 percent of 12- to 17-year-old females did not drink alcohol in the past month. Simply put, the facts don’t match CAMY’s scaremongering."