Alcohol in America Taking Action to Prevent Abuse (1985) / Chapter Skim
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7. Drinking and the Mass Media
7. Drinking and the Mass Media
Pages 82-94
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From page 82... ...
"Television characters may not smoke or use drugs," observect Bradley Greenberg, head of the Michigan State study, "but they drink with prodigious frequency." In the prime-time shows, characters consumed alcoholic beverages an average of eight times every hour. in the top-rated soap operas, each hour averaged over two depictions of drinking.)
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From page 83... ...
', FIGURE 7.1 Americans drink far more nonalcoholic beverages than alcoholic beverages on the average, yet television shows generally portray alcohol as the most common beverage consumed. Of an average of 182.5 gallons drunk per year by all Americans, alcoholic beverages represent about 16 percent of the total and nonalcoholic beverages about 84 percent.
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From page 84... ...
If indeed alcohol is a major public health problem and, as the pane} estimates, is responsible for 50,000-75,000 deaths annually you could not find this out from watching television." Advertising Alcohol: A Billion-DolZar Business Television and the other mass media cleliver another important set of messages about drinking: advertisements for alcoholic beverages. Each year the alcoholic beverage industry spends over $l billion advertising its products.
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From page 85... ...
And no law explicitly bans the advertising of hard liquor on the air. "Given the permissive environment that has developed on so many other matters," says Stanley Cohen, Washington bureau chief of Advertising Age, "I assume it is only a matter of time before liquor will be on television, too." The marketing of alcoholic beverages today is virtually indistinguishable from that of other products.
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From page 86... ...
"The funciamental issue that we need to address is whether the wide-scale promotion of alcoholic beverages is consistent with the goals of a society concerned with minimizing the social, economic, and personal hardships associated with current levels of alcohol-related problems," says WalIack. Voluntary Restraint by Industry Despite the lack of hard evidence linking exposure to drinking or alcohol advertising to increased consumption, many groups and individuals have sought to limit the extent of these influences.
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From page 87... ...
In the television industry one of the most prominent developments of recent years has been the work of the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Committee of the Caucus of Producers, Writers, and Directors, a 160-member consortium of people involved in the creation of television shows. As with many individuals, the caucus was spurred into action by tragedy: In 1982 Natalie Wood and William Holden died in alcohol-related accidents, and an automobile accident caused by a drunk driver seriously injured Mary Martin and lanes Gaynor and killed Martin's manager.
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From page 88... ...
With some recent and notable exceptions, there is little hard evidence to show that past educational campaigns using the mass media have had any significant effect. Some people seem to pay no attention
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From page 89... ...
They also point out that mass media campaigns are most effective when combinect with other, reinforcing measures. "Given the lack of both formative research and sufficient evaluation, it is no wonder that previous public education campaigns aimed at reducing the incidence of alcohol abuse have had such inconclusive results," writes John Hochheimer of Stanford University.
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From page 90... ...
In one of the two experimental towns in central California, the Three Community Study went beyond this mass media approach. Either at home or in formal classes, physicians and other health educators individually taught the people at highest risk of heart disease some specific skills that they could use to achieve a healthier lifestyle.
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From page 91... ...
Educational training programs on alcohol would be a valuable step forward, although at this stage their primary goal should be the collection of further research data. Lessons for Future Educational Campaigns The Three Community Study demonstrated several important rules that any similar program should follow.
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From page 92... ...
Finally, educational campaigns must do more than just supply people with information. They must suggest specific behaviors and teach specific skills that enable people to make changes that they want to make.
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From page 93... ...
It is not exclusively in the schools or in mass media advertising. It may be in information and training programs sponsored by universities and health maintenance organizations focusing on the health risks of some drinking practices and teaching techniques for modifying personal drinking habits." The Conflict Between Education and Other Media Messages As we saw in the first part of this chapter, educational programs using mass media may have a formidable barrier to overcome.
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From page 94... ...
An estimated $350 million of the $1 billion spent on alcohol advertising is now declucted from corporate taxes. Waliack's second suggestion is to levy a 10 percent tax on alcoholic beverage advertising to fund educational campaigns.
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