Alcohol ads pop up on cable programming that’s popular with teeagers at a suspicious rate, a study by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and UCLA found.

Jailbait-pandering, pop-infused ads seem geared toward a demographic not allowed to purchase the product. The study says teens are exposed to an average of 200 alcohol ads a year.

Science Daily writes about the study:

“Alcohol advertisers have pledged to avoid audiences made up of more than 30 percent underage viewers – such as children’s programming,” said David H. Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth and an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. “However, many other shows have adolescent appeal. This research suggests that ads are aimed at groups that include a disproportionate number of teens and that the alcohol industry’s voluntary self-monitoring is not working to reduce adolescent exposure to ads.”

It’s off-putting stuff for parents who’d like to think their children will be able to avoid the onset of ad-induced alcoholism until at least a few years into college, but the source of the info, though it used reputable, peer-reviewed methodology, seems less than neutral. If your Center is called “on Alcohol Marketing and Youth,” it’s sort of your job to produce such findings, otherwise you really don’t have a reason to exist.

Alcohol Advertising Reaching Too Many Teens On Cable TV, Researchers Say [Science Daily]
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