Exposure When someone says alcohol, most people think of a certain type of drink they have been exposed to. Alcohol advertisements are everywhere; everyone is exposed to them. Imagine being a child and seeing people on television drinking and being portrayed to be cool and popular. Young teens today are overexposed to alcohol advertisements and it is creating more of a problem with underage drinking. Alone, alcohol companies spend close to $2 billion every year advertising in the United States alone. From 2001 to 2007, these companies aired more than two million television ads and published more than 20,000 magazine advertisements (Jernigan). This much advertising will inevitably lead to exposure to teens. If it is against the law for anyone
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Companies that are supposed to target adults should be more careful when placing advertisements. Alcohol companies and other companies for adults advertise in many ways, varying from television to billboards. Advertisements will often appear in places that children will see them. If a child sees people drinking and they are portrayed to look cool, the child may try to be like these people so he or she can feel cool or popular. Many people who are against underage drinking would attest that young adults often strive to be like adults or grow up faster. If a child sees an adult …show more content…
Western culture as a whole, not just the advertising and alcohol industry, tends to glorify alcohol and dismiss the problems associated with it. There should be more of an effort to reduce the consumption of alcohol by underage individuals; this effort might include changes such as education to the public about the risks of underage drinking, media campaigns, increased availability of treatment programs and more effective deterrence policies. Raising taxes on alcohol, putting clearly legible warning labels on the bottles, and regulating the advertising of alcohol would decrease the amount of children who would be able to or even want to consume alcohol (Kilbourne). Cigarettes used to be advertised in a way to look like a good thing and appeal to buyers; whereas, today not as many people smoke and most smokers are older individuals. Advertisements have changed over the years from an appealing state to an attempt to prevent people from using the harmful product. Today, cigarettes are sold with warning labels and clear advertisements of the dangers that come with smoking. In the picture below, a cigarette is pictured to look harmful and rotten. Not many people would want to smoke after seeing an ad like this (Graphic Anti-Smoking Advert Uses Rotting Flesh to Show Dangers of Using Roll-Up Cigarettes). This advertisement is from 2015; whereas an advertisement from earlier years
Companies that are supposed to target adults should be more careful when placing advertisements. Alcohol companies and other companies for adults advertise in many ways, varying from television to billboards. Advertisements will often appear in places that children will see them. If a child sees people drinking and they are portrayed to look cool, the child may try to be like these people so he or she can feel cool or popular. Many people who are against underage drinking would attest that young adults often strive to be like adults or grow up faster. If a child sees an adult …show more content…
Western culture as a whole, not just the advertising and alcohol industry, tends to glorify alcohol and dismiss the problems associated with it. There should be more of an effort to reduce the consumption of alcohol by underage individuals; this effort might include changes such as education to the public about the risks of underage drinking, media campaigns, increased availability of treatment programs and more effective deterrence policies. Raising taxes on alcohol, putting clearly legible warning labels on the bottles, and regulating the advertising of alcohol would decrease the amount of children who would be able to or even want to consume alcohol (Kilbourne). Cigarettes used to be advertised in a way to look like a good thing and appeal to buyers; whereas, today not as many people smoke and most smokers are older individuals. Advertisements have changed over the years from an appealing state to an attempt to prevent people from using the harmful product. Today, cigarettes are sold with warning labels and clear advertisements of the dangers that come with smoking. In the picture below, a cigarette is pictured to look harmful and rotten. Not many people would want to smoke after seeing an ad like this (Graphic Anti-Smoking Advert Uses Rotting Flesh to Show Dangers of Using Roll-Up Cigarettes). This advertisement is from 2015; whereas an advertisement from earlier years