The next time a commercial for beer or liquor comes on television, pay close attention to what they do and do not say. Most of these commercials show attractive people doing fun activities, oftentimes outdoors. One recent beer commercial shows a man sitting in a fishing boat while a friend tosses him a beer from the shore. Dos Equis uses “the most interesting man in the world” to promote their beer, suggesting that you can’t be terribly interesting if you’re sober.
The alcohol industry more or less regulates itself when it comes to advertising. Manufacturers may have their own guidelines, such as limiting ads to programs that have a mostly adult audience, but that doesn’t mean that alcohol companies always follow those guidelines. Consider the Super Bowl, for example. A good number of the ads are always for alcohol, and the companies surely don’t believe that no children watch the Super Bowl.
There aren’t really any repercussions for violating these guidelines. The First Amendment provides broad protections on speech, and as long as these ads are truthful and non-deceptive, there’s not much the government can do. As a result, the Federal Trade Commission has long encouraged the alcohol industry to adopt and comply with self-regulatory standards, which include making sure that no more than 28.4 percent of the audience for an ad may consist of people under 21, based on reliable audience data, and that ad content should not appeal primarily to people under 21.
At the end of these alcohol ads, you’re likely to either hear a rushed warning or see it in small print: Please drink responsibly. One the one hand, at least these alcohol companies are making some kind of effort to suggest that too much drinking is irresponsible. On the other, it seems like a throwaway comment, a token warning to attempt to appease critics. For one thing, what does drinking responsibly even mean? Most people don’t happen to know off the top of their heads what is considered moderate or heavy drinking. According to a study published in Drug and Alcohol Dependence, 9 out of 10 alcohol advertisements include the message “drink responsibly,” but none provide information about what is defined as responsible drinking.
Obviously, the more people drink, the more profit alcohol companies make. It’s estimated that the industry makes $36.3 billion from binge drinking, which is defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as when men consume five or more drinks in the course of two hours, and women consume four or more drinks within the same period. Heavy drinking carries a risk for many health problems, including cancer, and while most people are aware of the dangers of long-term use, many don’t understand the problem with the occasional bout of binge drinking. As a result, some argue that the industry should be required to clearly define both responsible drinking and the possible negative effects of overindulgence in their ads.
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