Adolescent perceptions of underage drinkers in TV beer ads

Considerable concern exists regarding the impact of alcohol advertisements on young people. One dimension of this problem that has received little or no scientific scrutiny regards adolescents perception of the ages of persons portrayed using alcohol advertisements. This study tests adolescent perception of the ages of persons portrayed in television beer advertisements, and examines correlation relationships between such age judgments and alcohol use. Male and female adolescents ages 12-18 recanted through public schools (N=401) each viewed four beer advertisements from a pool of 48 beer advertisements randomly selected from national television, and judged the ages of the youngest person shown using the product in the ad. Almost 40% reported that the youngest person was under 21 in at least one of the four ads viewed. Amount of alcohol use interacted with junior versus senior high school status in predicting whether or not participants reported one or more underage person in the beer ads: the relationship between alcohol use and such perceptions was positive for junior high and negative for senior high school students. Identifying underage persons in the ads was not related to polarity of responses to the ad. Results suggest that beer induce guidelines are not achieving their stated goal of ensuring that persons shown in beer advertisements appear consistently to be 21 or Older; more tentatively, this failure may be associated with inappropriate drinking decisions by younger adolescents.