By the time a teen is old enough to drive they will have seen over 75,000 ads for alcoholic beverages, and most of those ads appeal to teens from the ages of 13 to 19 (1). The average teen boy who is just arriving at "adulthood" is trying to become more of a man and trying to become more independent. The picture to the right claims that beer is the "nectar of the guys." And as a young teen trying to be more manly, what could be more intriguing than this ad?Most of the ads have claimed to be aimed at persons 21 and over but a majority of the ads appeal to the youth because the ads use cartoons and many other things that appeal the the young people of today. Beer company Budweiser used cartoon frogs to advertise their product, young children were surveyed and a vast majority of them were more familiar with the Budweiser frogs than they were with the power rangers or tony the tiger (2). Still think the ad was aimed at adults? Other things that appeal to the youth is the people used in the ads. Todays 21 year olds and 18 year olds look quite alike and so when an 18 year old is watching the ad for some alcoholic beverage they see people who look their age and so they relate to those people and want to be like those people seen in the ads. Guinness uses cartoon like characters who create beer and refer to each others new ideas as "brilliant!" If a young person se
es a beer company advertising with freindly cartoons who refer to everything as "brilliant" then that young person is going to think that drinking beer and other alcohol is okay. The picture to the right is an example of the beer company, Guinness, using cartoons to advertise their product. These ads are seen everywhere, on the side of busses, at sporting events, TV commercials, radio commercials, magazine ads, and they are seen all over. The makers of some alcohol are bottling their products in fun, fresh, cool looking bottles. And the product going into those bottles are sometimes fruity flavored alcohol. One survey was taken and a majority of teens were more familiar with fruit flavored alcohol than some adults were and that more teens had a greater knowledge of these drinks than adults did (3). And yet they still say that these 
ads are aimed at persons 21 and older. The picture to the left shows how a bottle of Mikes Hard Lemonade easily blends in with other non-alcoholic drinks such as Snapple and SOBE. 75% of teens shop every week, alcohol companies put up ads that are low in height, this places it at eye level for most children and teens (2). Of all the drugs that teens try across the country, alcohol is the most abused drug. Alcohol abuse is a serious problem and is proven to cause serious injury and even death. Youths every day try alcohol, roughly 11,318. This is nothing compared to the 6,488 who try marijuana for the first time every day and the 386 who try heroin for the first time. Alcohol is the most used and abused drug by teens and young adults (2). The legal drinking age was changed from 18 to 21 in 1984 when MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) went to congress and stated their reasons for the change. Since the change there have been less lives lost to drunk driving and other alcohol related deaths (4). Currently there is a push to lower the legal drinking age back down to 18, personally I think it is not a good idea beacuse too many of todays 18 year olds would abuse it. Too many of the youths would not drink responsibly and there would most likely be a rise in teen deaths due to drunk driving and other alcohol related deaths. Because of the constant advertising of alcohol, lowering the drinking age back to 18 would be a mistake and cost people their lives. It's bad enough that teens are drinking illegally as of now, but giving them the right to drink legally would cause too many problems and ruin to many lives, its best to keep the drinking age at 21 and cut down on the amount of alcohol advertising that is done. If the amount of advertisments is lowered then there could possibly be a decrease in the amount of teens and adults who drink to excess and die from drunk driving and other alcohol related deaths. Hopefully, by doing this we can solve the problem of underage drinking all around the country.
es a beer company advertising with freindly cartoons who refer to everything as "brilliant" then that young person is going to think that drinking beer and other alcohol is okay. The picture to the right is an example of the beer company, Guinness, using cartoons to advertise their product. These ads are seen everywhere, on the side of busses, at sporting events, TV commercials, radio commercials, magazine ads, and they are seen all over. The makers of some alcohol are bottling their products in fun, fresh, cool looking bottles. And the product going into those bottles are sometimes fruity flavored alcohol. One survey was taken and a majority of teens were more familiar with fruit flavored alcohol than some adults were and that more teens had a greater knowledge of these drinks than adults did (3). And yet they still say that these ads are aimed at persons 21 and older. The picture to the left shows how a bottle of Mikes Hard Lemonade easily blends in with other non-alcoholic drinks such as Snapple and SOBE. 75% of teens shop every week, alcohol companies put up ads that are low in height, this places it at eye level for most children and teens (2). Of all the drugs that teens try across the country, alcohol is the most abused drug. Alcohol abuse is a serious problem and is proven to cause serious injury and even death. Youths every day try alcohol, roughly 11,318. This is nothing compared to the 6,488 who try marijuana for the first time every day and the 386 who try heroin for the first time. Alcohol is the most used and abused drug by teens and young adults (2). The legal drinking age was changed from 18 to 21 in 1984 when MADD (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) went to congress and stated their reasons for the change. Since the change there have been less lives lost to drunk driving and other alcohol related deaths (4). Currently there is a push to lower the legal drinking age back down to 18, personally I think it is not a good idea beacuse too many of todays 18 year olds would abuse it. Too many of the youths would not drink responsibly and there would most likely be a rise in teen deaths due to drunk driving and other alcohol related deaths. Because of the constant advertising of alcohol, lowering the drinking age back to 18 would be a mistake and cost people their lives. It's bad enough that teens are drinking illegally as of now, but giving them the right to drink legally would cause too many problems and ruin to many lives, its best to keep the drinking age at 21 and cut down on the amount of alcohol advertising that is done. If the amount of advertisments is lowered then there could possibly be a decrease in the amount of teens and adults who drink to excess and die from drunk driving and other alcohol related deaths. Hopefully, by doing this we can solve the problem of underage drinking all around the country.
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11 comments:
those are some crazy stats and it really is true. It's crazy what kids are subjected to these days. It was really hard to find the mikes in the midst of all those soda/juices.
Those stats are insane! But sadly, very true as well.
Personally i dont like any alchoholic beverages they just do not appeal to me.
Nice facts!
these are amazing facts that you have found. I did not know that little kids were attracted those kinds of alcohol commercials. so what can we do to stop this?
I think you make several good points in your commentary....but first I have to tell a story! When I was 19 or 20, a bus driver in the city tried to tell me I couldn't get on the bus because I had a soda that looked like a beer. So the adult couldn't tell the difference between soda and beer at first glance and little kids certainly can't. I've also know kids to drink wine coolers at a party and not know the difference. To me they don't taste that much different than soft drinks. Beer and wine usually gross kids out but Mike's and other sweet alcoholic beverages are pretty tasty to kids. I agree that cartoon ads are just wrong...they don't use cartoons to sell cars because most kids can't afford a car and you can't get a license until you're at least 16 so what does that tell us? Cartoon ads for adults don't work that well or more "adult" products would be using them. Ads exploiting women and advocating a crass materialism are bad enough but ads aimed at corrupting children are just inexcusable.
Your Media institute link looks like it might be useful for later projects in the class.
i think this is really hard hitting. that there are so many young people being exposed to companies who only care about profit. using any mean possible to get people to but their drinks. even if it means sticking a colorful label on them or making them taste/look like juice. also i think it kind of shows a lack of interest in parents. why arent more parents spending more time teaching and showing their children the diiferences between colorful adds and things that are okay for them to have. or making sure their children are not at easy access to their booze. this brought alot to my eyes and i still cant believe how much those drinks look like juice!
these facts are all very interesting. A lot of these facts really surprised me. I cannot that the cartoon ads for the beer companies were really aimed at children. Why would someone do something like that? All of these companies, such as, Mike's Hard Lemonade, do not care about anything else, but to get young adults to buy the alcoholic beverages so they can make good profit on the drinks. It is very sad that a lot of young adults get into car crashes because of this. I think it is wrong and we need a way to stop this from happening.
That's awful. As you all know, underage drinking is a very dangerous thing. So many lives are lost due to drving under the influence. These ads should not be released and should definitely not be geered toward underage people.
Dude i think your absolutley right. Isn't alcohol one of the main reasons that all massachussets' driving laws got changed, since so many kids our age go out and end up getting killed, its really sad.
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