Alcohol Television Commercials are Misleading Viewers

Alcohol Television Commercials are Misleading Viewers

At any given time a person can turn on their television and find a commercial of some sort. Their main purpose is for them to throw information about their product to anyone who will listen. It is also common for this form of advertisement to be promoting an alcoholic beverage. Whether it’s a catchy song with the chorus chanting “This Bud’s for you!” or three frogs belching “Bud-Wei-Ser!”, viewers learn the slogans and use them in their own lives. Needless to say, alcohol companies have mastered the art of grabbing the attention of their audience by imbedding their images and words through commercial advertising. Although clever, these advertisements can be misleading their viewers to think that drinking brings unattainable excitement and pleasure rather than the serious consequences that frequently arise.

Statistics for drinking are alarming for any age group. However reports about adolescent drinking are possibly the most alarming, and are a large indicator that alcohol advertisements mislead their audiences. The National Institute on Media and the Family has reported many disturbing facts about the false portrayals of alcohol consumption. For example, the institute reports that “by the time teenagers reach driving age, they will have seen 75,000 alcohol ads” (Baran, 2004, p. 445). This means that adolescents are exposed to almost 13 alcohol advertisements a day. Whether it’s subtle or obvious, children still get the message that alcohol consumption leads to parties and happiness. In fact, statistics show that “56% of children in grades 5 through 12 say that alcohol advertising encourages them to drink” (Baran, 2004, p.445). By the use of image ad...

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...d federal mandated warnings), research has shown that they hurt the cause as opposed to helping. The boomerang effect expresses just this: “drinkers perceive alcohol as having more benefits when the warning is present” (Lapin, McKinnon, 1998, p.3). Alcohol is almost like a forbidden fruit, which makes the idea even more exciting and its consumers to feel as though they are overcoming the infringement on their own rights.

This research, as discomforting as it is, makes it almost impossible to find a solution to overcoming the misleading information handed out through alcohol commercials. As long as alcohol is sold, it will have to be advertised with the enthusiasm and appeal that it does now, in order to maintain the consumer’s attention. Sadly enough, this has to be done through false conditions which will steadily impact our society’s view of drinking.