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Alcohol Advertising and Young People

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Advertising to Children

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Abstract

There is growing concern about problems of alcohol misuse and abuse among young people. In the new millennium, increasingly widespread media attention has addressed this issue. While some evidence points to a reduction in prevalence of alcohol consumption by young people in general, occurrences of excessive consumption, or ‘binge’ drinking, are on the increase. Reports for the UK in 2008, for example, catalogued significant increases in hospital admissions due to drinking (Ford, Hawkes & Elliott, 2008). In tackling the causes of problematic alcohol consumption, critics have often turned their attention to the role played by alcohol advertising and other forms of promotion. Such advertising is often blamed for driving irresponsible use of alcohol by encouraging people to start drinking when still very young and by making alcohol consumption seem an attractive and fashionable pursuit.

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Authors
  1. Barrie Gunter
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of Sheffield, UK

    Mark Blades  & Caroline Oates  & 

  2. Fordham University, USA

    Fran Blumberg

  3. University of Leicester, UK

    Barrie Gunter

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© 2014 Barrie Gunter

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Gunter, B. (2014). Alcohol Advertising and Young People. In: Blades, M., Oates, C., Blumberg, F., Gunter, B. (eds) Advertising to Children. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137313256_5

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