Assessing the Cumulative Impact of Alcohol Marketing Communications on Youth Drinking

Consumer involvement will form an integral part of the research process. It is proposed that an advisory panel that includes young people will be set up at an early stage to review the progress of the research and discuss issues that arise. The views of the advisory panel will also have a key role to play in informing the development of subsequent policy interventions and social marketing strategies. The results and implications of each stage of the study will be disseminated to the wider public through the development of a dedicated section on the ISM web site and will be responsive to consumer feedback.

The last decade has seen a significant increase in alcohol consumption in the UK and a growth in binge drinking amongst young people. These trends have been responsible for raising particular health concerns as there is now clear evidence of a link between regular recreational alcohol use in adolescence and alcohol dependence in early adulthood. This study aims to examine the marketing communication techniques used by the UK alcohol industry to assess its impact on youth drinking and risk taking during the period when most young people start experimenting with alcohol, from ages 13-15. It will address four deficiencies in the current evidence base. Firstly, whilst the evidence indicates that alcohol promotion has a reinforcing effect on young people?s drinking, there is a paucity of research to establish whether or not it is implicated in the onset of drinking and harmful drinking patterns. Secondly, the evidence focuses almost exclusively on traditional ?above-the-line? advertising (television, billboards, magazine advertising etc) and fails to take account of new, largely unregulated interactive media such as the internet and the mobile phone. Thirdly, no attempt has been made to examine the cumulative impact of marketing communications in establishing evocative alcohol brands. Finally, no one has checked for any differential effect on gender and by affluence and deprivation. The study will address these gaps and play a proactive role in developing evidence-based policy to respond with countervailing social marketing and smarter regulation.