Booze Advertisers Ignore Their Own Rules When It Comes to Binge Drinking
Anti-binge-drinking ads actually encourage binge-drinking, according to a new study to be published shortly by Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management. That's true even when the ads show youngsters vomiting on themselves and passing out.
The news will be greeted with knowing sniggers inside the alcohol business. The industry has a laughable record of discouraging irresponsible drinking, and it knows it. Most anti-drinking messages are paid for by alcohol advertisers, who insert those "please enjoy responsibly" messages which you've learned to ignore into the end of every ad.
For instance, you might think that the BACCHUS Institute is some sort of orgiastic tribute to the god of wine who inspires madness and ecstasy, but it's actually the name of the beer industry's anti-drinking effort. (It stands for Boosting Alcohol Consciousness Concerning the Health of University Students.)
The beer business has an industry code that requires advertisers to show their product in a "responsible manner," and it discourages imagery which suggests drinking quickly or to excess. My favorite part of it is the strict requirement that:
Beer advertising and marketing materials should not depict Santa Claus.More specifically, in terms of binge-drinking:
... advertising and marketing materials should not depict situations where beer is being consumed rapidly, excessively, involuntarily, as part of a drinking game, or as a result of a dare.Yet beer advertisers routinely show booze being consumed in ways that no sensible person would. This Sam Adams commercial shows two men wearing beer hats that have hoses through which they can drink. And this one shows Sam Adams employees drinking beer at work. Not just in the brewery but at their desks. Even the IT guy says "That's why I'm here. I love beer."
One Sam Adams ad shows company founder Jim Koch being dunked into a tank of his own beer. (You can see the original event at which that happened here.)
So, by all means, adjust anti-binge-drinking campaigns so that they're more persuasive to youngsters. But don't expect the majority of advertising messages about alcohol to change until the industry itself gets serious about enforcing its own rules.