Alright guys, since i have nothing much to post about. Or i should say i literally have no time, i will just post my English Research Paper which took me like freaking long to complete it! =(
Thinking back the time when I was first being invited to a house party, I gladly accepted the offer as I would like to experience how a house party actually looks like. When I first stepped foot into the house, everyone was really energized dancing rhythmically with the loud pumping music. To be honest, the atmosphere really stimulates the adrenaline in your body and I actually felt my body moving involuntarily according to the rhythm of the music. However, from time to time you can see people actually maneuvering through a herd of people searching for something. Then, I realized that their ultimate aim is to search for the keg. As night progresses, the keg empties; the minds and motor skills of the partygoers have also deteriorated. Unfortunately, I find that it is such a pathetic scene as most of the partygoers are underage. This tells us that the partygoers did not abide to the drinking rules as the US law states that the minimum drinking age is 21 years old. Alcohol is no doubt a sedative-hypnotic. It is such a powerful drug available to literally anyone who wants it. Compared to the other drugs, the popularity of alcohol stood steadily and is widely chosen among majority of the people. Alcohol also brings about major problems especially among teenagers that have not met the legal drinking age. It can be clearly seen that some of the teenagers especially those who are still attending college have their social calendar closely affiliated with alcohol. So what exactly causes this scenario? Why do teenagers drink below the drinking age limit? What is the prime factor that leads to the underage drinking? In this paper I will talk about the reason of underage drinking and argue that alcohol advertising is actually the root cause that promotes underage drinking.
Underage drinking among teenagers has become such a common problem especially in the United States. However, there is no specific reason for an underage teenage to commit into drinking. It could be due to peer pressure, family problems, alcoholic parents, low self esteem, emotional changes and many more. Majority of the college students entered college around the age of 18 and what actually influences them to drink could be due to their curiosity. This is because that they felt a sudden freedom as they come to college. They are free from their home and most importantly their parents’ supervision. This indirectly gives them an idea that they are mature enough to decide what is right or wrong and they can finally do whatever they want including consuming alcohol although they have not met the drinking age yet. They thought that they are able to hold responsibilities to whatever action they have committed. According to a research that was conducted by Dr. Richard A. Yoast, she found out that 80% of the students tested alcohol at the time when they completed their high school, and approximately a third of the high school students were actually binged drinkers (Morrison). The Havard School of Public Health defines binged drinking as five drinks in a row for males whereas four drinks in a row for females (College Alcohol Study). This indirectly informs that high school students actually started drinking and it will be a norm for them to drink when they come to college especially with all the “freedom” that they have. However we cannot conclude that curiosity and “freedom” is the main factor that causes them to dive into the act of underage drinking as the whole fact about the “freedom” and curiosity among them did not take into account other factors such as their backgrounds and what actually causes the curiosity among them. It could possibly be due to the fact that these underage teenagers were being attracted to the alcohol advertisement and they are being really curious to try out how does drinking feels like.
In addition to that, we ourselves understand that the society is really complex nowadays, so as the social interactions among teenagers. Hence, in terms of social wise, there are so many factors that might inflict the act of underage drinking such as peer pressure, stress and much more. According to a study that was conducted by the Logan County Drug Free Youth Coalition, they found out that peer pressure is the factor that tops the list which contributes to underage drinking (Hochstedler). However the study was being conducted on mostly high school students and it is obvious that the studied was not thorough enough as it did not cover some of the general factor such as the influence of media. It is no doubt that peer pressure causes underage drinking, but the conclusion is that peer pressure is not exactly the main factor that promotes underage drinking.
Looking though all the possible factors and reasons, alcohol advertising seemed to be the root cause that promotes underage drinking. Alcohol advertisement comes from all sorts of media ranging from the internet, magazine, pamphlet, billboards, magazines and etc. All these sources are being identified as potential sources where youngsters get to learn more about alcohol and have themselves getting involved with drinking problems (Bonnie and O’Connell, 597). According to a research done by RAND Corporation on high school and college students, it was stated that there are approximately 50% of the students that are likely to drink and another 36% of the students that have the intention to drink when being exposed to high levels of alcohol advertisement compared to the others who were exposed to only a few advertisement (RAND). RAND Corporation is actually a nonprofit institution that helps improve policy and decision making through research and analysis and is currently being funded by the US government and several other corporations such as healthcare industry, universities and private individuals. This once again tells us that alcohol advertisements actually bring about a strong impact in influencing the peoples’ mindset especially underage teenagers. Alcohol advertisement not only caught attention of these underage teenagers, an unbelievable fact is that it actually catches attention of a child as young as fourth grade:
"Parents may be aware that advertising may promote drinking among early adolescents," said Rebecca L. Collins, lead author of the study. "We did a previous study that found that children as young as fourth grade were very familiar with alcohol advertising and can tell you slogans and brand names. This new study shows that by the time they get to sixth grade, ads may be influencing them to drink."
The statement above shows us how influential alcohol advertising could be. Apart from that, the word “may be” in the last sentence of the statement also implies that there is a great potential and high possibility that alcohol advertisement promotes young drinkers. It is undeniable that younger kids have good memories and with the influences of the advertisement and their curiosity, it will not be weird to see children started picking up drinking habits at a younger age in the near future.
Alcohol advertising has also increased dramatically especially among cable TV. According to a research that was carried out, from the year 2001 to 2006, the total number of alcohol advertisements and expenditure increases from 176% (51019 advertisements to 140930 advertisements) and 137% (from $157 million to $372 million) respectively. This is such a shocking increase in just merely half a decade and the fact that cable TV actually hosted 95% of the alcohol advertisements in national television network (Craig et al.). This in a way tells us that there will be more underage teenagers being exposed to alcohol advertisements. Evidence also shows that alcohol advertising influences underage drinking. A longitudinal study found out that both alcohol advertising expenditures and individual exposure towards alcohol advertisements are closely related with subsequent drinking. In a longitudinal study of seventh graders, watching television programs that contains alcohol advertisement associates them with drinking alcohol and consuming at least 3 drinks in a setting whereas a study of sixth and seventh graders found that exposure to alcohol advertising associates teenagers with drinking and the intention to drink (Peter et al.). This once again proves that how influential alcohol advertisement is and the impact that is being brought about towards the underage teenagers.
In addition to that, an anti-alcohol group named CAMY also launch a campaign against alcohol advertising. Since it is an anti-alcohol group, part of their research and studies might favor towards the prejudicial issue of alcohol, however the studies and data are still valid. CAMY is actually a 10 billion USD research and advocacy organization funded by the Pew trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and is based at the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. According to the reports by CAMY, alcohol-advertising in Youth –Orientated Magazines is out of control as there are a large portion of the alcohol advertisement actually appears in “youth-orientated” magazine. “Youth-orientated” magazines as defined by CAMY are magazines whereby the compositions of readers between the ages of 12 and 20 that is greater than 15.8%. This includes widely read titles in music and entertainments (e.g., Vibe, Entertainment Weekly), sports (e.g., ESPN The Magazine) women’s fashion (e.g., Essence, Allure), and men’s lifestyle (e.g., Maxim). There were approximately 72 brands of alcohol placing more than 50% of their advertising dollars in youth-oriented magazines whereas 25 of these brands placed 100% of the advertising in youth-oriented magazines during the year 2001. (CAMY) According to CAMY as well, there are approximately 51% of youth reader that reads the “youth-orientated” magazine and CAMY also claimed that all this advertisements are meant to target underage youths (Hanson).
Last but not least, there is also a study that was conducted by the University of Connecticut found out that teenagers who are being exposed to Alcohol Advertisement actually drinks more. In other word, this study once again proves that alcohol advertisement is the root cause that promotes underage drinking. The study was carried out to look at the alcohol advertisement exposures and also the drinking habits of the teenagers of age 15-21 years old (Storrs). According to the study of Dr. Leslie Synder, lead author of the study and professor of communication sciences at UConn, teenager who lives in a media market with the lowest advertising expenditure per capita is expected to have 9 drinks if he/she sees only a few alcohol advertisements but 16 if he/she saw many advertisements whereas a teenager who is staying in a media market with the highest advertisement spending per capita is expected to have 15 drinks if there is only a little advertisements whereas approximately 26 drinks if there are many advertisements. (Krane) The shocking result of the study shows us that how influential media could be and the impact that they imposed on the general public especially underage teenagers.
Alcohol has been a really hot topic among everyone throughout the world and many concerns have been constantly made especially regarding the issue of underage drinking. In order to combat this problem, it is absolutely not a task that can be done by only a person, organization or any individual body but it requires a huge force and also effort from almost everyone. It is certainly something that cannot be accomplished in a day or in a year but hopefully, specific measures should be taken to at least minimize the current problem and I think the head start of this entire problem is to revise through the rules for alcohol advertising. If alcohol advertising can be handled in a correct manner, influences of alcohol on teenager especially underage youth will not be a severe problem and this will wipe out the bad influences and consequences that alcohol brings about towards teenagers.
Bibliography
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