The Pros And Cons Of Alcohol

Working Thesis: Alcohol and prescription drug advertisements contribute to underage drinking and drug use because they increase familiarity with the substances and promote a deadly curiosity.

Alcoholism in adults and underage drinking have been an issue in the United States for many years. The number of youth arrested for alcohol related charges has increased as advertising has become more common. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, about 5,000 underage people die each year from alcohol related causes. Along with the large amounts of death, 50,000 college students experience date rape due to alcohol and 43,000 students are injured by others influenced by alcohol. Recently, studies have been conducted in many different

It is self-regulating and has few requirements for the types of advertisements it is allowed to broadcast. The few regulations that are self-imposed are put in place to attempt to protect certain parts of the population such as children and teenagers. These regulations have recently been put aside and focus has been turned to marketing each product. The companies advertising these products have spent an overwhelming amount of money on their marketing campaigns. In the study by Ross et al. (2016) research was conducted from 2005 to 2012, an alarming $7.5 billion was spent on advertisements. Over 2,461,999 advertisements have been created in just a seven year period. A large amount of these advertisements have been broadcast on television programs intended for the youth population (Babor 5). The advertisements shown on the youth programs break the regulations put in place to protect this part of the population. The types of advertisements are the main cause of the issue of underage drinking. The portrayal of a potentially deadly substance as something positive, fun, and engaging product may be acceptable when it is marketed towards adults but is unacceptable to target the nation’s youth. Adults above the age of 21 have the cognitive ability to make their own decisions about the advertisements while children and teens are heavily influenced by what they see on television. “Alcohol advertising

According to the Center of Disease Control, in 2014, 47,000 deaths were attributed to prescribed pharmaceutical drugs. There have been about 500,000 deaths since 2000. The Center of Disease Control monitors reports of deaths due to prescription drugs each year. The amount of deaths recorded increases every year by an alarming amount. The CDC reported from 2013 to 2014 a 14% rise in the number of deaths. One of the most prominent reasons for the continual increase is direct-to-consumer prescription drug advertising. The regulations for this industry are similar to the alcohol industry; both are self-regulating. The marketing campaigns for pharmaceutical drugs must have stronger regulations or be banned from broadcasting entirely. The CDC has provided data showing alarming numbers of deaths with a gradual increase each year. This can be drastically reduced if direct-to-consumer drug advertisements are banned. These advertisements do not promote a healthy lifestyle. Instead, they are promoting a harmful legal substance that kills more people than most illegal substances each year. The advertisements use many different tactics to create the desire needed to sell their product. Many of the marketing tactics include the use of emotional appeals. Advertisements show portrayals of people in pain or dealing with sadness before taking the drug and then show the effects of no pain, happiness, and smiles. These