KENDRICK HARRIS
Introduction to Sociology
April 9, 2011
Omer Durfee
ALCOHOL ADVERTISING AND YOUTH
Alcohol is the drug of choice among youth. Many young people are experiencing the consequences of drinking too much, at an early age. As a result, underage drinking is a leading public health problem in this country. Did you know that each year, approximately 5,000 young people under the age of 21 die as a result of underage drinking? This includes about 1,900 deaths from motor vehicles crashes, 1,600 as a result of homicides, 300 are a result of suicides as well as hundreds from other injuries ranging from falls, burns and drowning. Yet drinking continues to be wide spread among adolescents.
So after reading this article, I realized that the social problem the researchers were investigating was the exposure of alcohol advertising on television, on the radio, in magazines and on the internet to young members of our society (12-20 years of age) and adults. These particular adults being exposed to the alcohol advertisements are above the United States drinking age of 21 but underage drinking happens to be one of the main problem today as we speak. Underage drinking is the social problem the researchers are hitting on the hardest in this article and for good reasons.
In this particular article, researchers used secondary sources to acquire information about ways/methods advertisers use to sell their product. The researchers used databases that provided them with specific information to calculate how many youths actually are exposed to these alcoholic advertisements. Another method that the researchers used was the Center on Alcoholic Marketing and Youth (CAMY) The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) was established and its activities funded by the Pew trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, a ten billion (not million) dollar ($10,000,000,000.00) organization. The stated mission of CAMY is to
References: Jernigan, D. H., Ostroff, J., & Ross, C. (2005). Alcohol Advertising and Youth: A Measured Approach. Journal of Public Health Policy , 1-15.