HHS HealthBeat (September 12, 2012)

Seeing the alcohol ads

From the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, I’m Ira Dreyfuss with HHS HealthBeat.

Many magazines have large youth audiences. And a researcher says many alcohol ads in those magazines are violating industry standards.

At the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Dr. David Jernigan looked at more than 1,250 ads that appeared more than 2,500 times in 11 magazines.

“The greater the percentage of young people in the readership of the magazines, the more likely we were to find problematic ads.”

Jernigan says parents need to help young people realize the ads will never show the bad things that can happen because of drinking.

The study in the Journal of Adolescent Health was supported by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Learn more at healthfinder.gov.

HHS HealthBeat is a production of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. I’m Ira Dreyfuss.

Last revised: September 12, 2012