Visit captainmorgan.com, and next to the brand’s iconic smiling pirate, you’ll see the question, “Are you old enough to come aboard?” Go to Budweiser.com, and you’ll get the request, “ID please.” Absolut.com’s home page tells visitors, “You have to be over 21 to enter this site.” All three brands, like the rest of the alcohol industry, require visitors to type in a birth date to show they are of legal drinking age before entering their websites.
That, so parents and the rest of public are supposed to believe, is how alcohol companies keep their online marketing away from kids. Riiight. If only bars and restaurants allowed every customer ordering a drink to simply pop the cap off a Sharpie, write his or her birth date on a napkin and pass it to the bartender. Wrote down the wrong date? No problem — just cross it out and write down a new one. Or, in the online world, quit your browser and relaunch. It’s that easy.
If alcohol companies were only touting their products on company websites, the fact that the industry is flimsily self-regulated might not be much cause for alarm. The trouble is, according to a new report released last week from the Center for Digital Democracy and Berkeley Media Studies Group, they’re also saturating kid-popular websites like YouTube and Facebook with branded games, contests and viral videos, and tapping into people’s cell phones with apps and text messages. And research shows the marketing works.
“There are now at least 13 peer-reviewed, longitudinal studies of the relationship between exposure to alcohol marketing and youth drinking behavior,” David Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told reporters in an online news conference. “These studies have all found that the more youth are exposed to marketing, in a wide range of forms and formats, the more likely they are to drink.”
Children and teens are on the web and using cell phones in stunning numbers. Nearly three quarters of 12- to 17-year olds use social networking sites, and by age 12, even more have mobile phones. Alcohol companies have no shortage of content that would likely appeal to these future consumers. Kids (who are math-savvy enough to enter the birth date of a 21-year-old) can play Malibu rum-sponsored bowling games on their phones, answer sports trivia questions on Coors’ Facebook page, or watch Smirnoff’s “Tea Partay” video, joining the 5 million other viewers who already have.
This is so true ~ The alcohol industry is not looking after anyone’s best interest or health .. it seems to be the mighty dollar is what drives these campaigns to entice our countries children at an early age to indulge in these destructive socially endorsed activities and life styles ~
There are so many subliminal messages being sent through the mass media and our social environment that say to be cool is to drink and smoke and so forth ~
Interesting that the article points out .. “they’re also saturating kid-popular web sites like YouTube and Facebook with branded games, contests and viral videos, and tapping into people’s cell phones with apps and text messages ”
This lead to another equally profound issue of our privacy and how our private information is gathered – scary!
Thank you so much, Johannes, for this important awareness on drinking and the many dangers that lurk in our society ~
Blessing with loving kindness ~ Coralina ~