Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth Statement Regarding JAMA Article: 'Alcohol Advertising in Magazines and Adolescent Readership'

5/13/2003

From: Nicole King of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, 202-687-0884

WASHINGTON, May 13 -- Following is a statement by David Jernigan, Ph.D., research director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, regarding the JAMA Article: "Alcohol Advertising in Magazines and Adolescent Readership":

The study published this week in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) adds to the mounting evidence that alcohol advertisers are placing their ads where underage youth will see them. In fact, this study finds that beer and distilled spirits ads appear more frequently in magazines with higher adolescent readership. This overexposure of underage youth to alcohol advertising is deeply troubling to the millions of parents and teachers who are working to educate young people and safeguard them from the potential dangers of underage alcohol abuse.

The study offers additional evidence that self-regulation by the alcohol industry is not protecting kids. Sadly, alcohol advertisers seem content to follow the same dangerous path as tobacco companies did in the 1990s.

Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have called on the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to investigate if and how the recommendations issued by the FTC in 1999 have been implemented by the alcohol industry. The need for stronger advertising standards to protect America's youth from overexposure to alcohol advertising is now clearer than ever.

The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University is a public health group established to monitor and analyze the alcohol industry's marketing and its impact on youth. More information on the Center can be found at http://www.camy.org