Perceptions of Alcohol Advertising Vary Based on Psychological Characteristics

BACKGROUND

The alcohol industry recognizes children and pregnant women as population sub-groups vulnerable to the effects of alcohol marketing. Research indicates that heavy alcohol users are also potentially vulnerable to alcohol marketing. The purpose of the current study is to determine if sub-groups defined by psychological characteristics should be classified as potentially vulnerable as well.

METHODS

College students (n = 326) from two northeast schools were recruited to complete a survey containing questions on demographics, alcohol use, and psychological characteristics (alcohol expectancies, alcohol dependence, sensation seeking traits, and past delinquent behaviors). Additionally, after viewing each of five alcohol ads (4 television and 1 magazine), participants answered questions about their perceptions of alcohol consumption, responsible drinking, excessive drinking, and appeal of the ads. Main effects were assessed using hierarchical linear modeling, with adjustment for age, sex, race, ethnicity, and AUDIT score.

RESULTS

Alcohol expectancies (p < .001), particularly the social and physical pleasure and social expressiveness sub-scales, and sensation seeking traits (p = .002) were positively associated with alcohol ad appeal. Alcohol dependence symptoms, specifically impaired control and tolerance, were positively associated with perceptions of responsible drinking (p = .035), even though mean perceived number of drinks consumed met the definition of binge drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with positive alcohol expectancies, sensation seeking traits, and alcohol dependence may be vulnerable to alcohol advertising and marketing. Because alcohol advertising often contains content that can serve as a cue or reinforce to drink, specific regulations may be needed to prevent alcohol-related harm from occurring in these sub-populations.

Perceptions of Alcohol Advertising among High Risk Drinkers

BACKGROUND

Individuals who are particularly vulnerable to the influence of alcohol advertising, such as youth, need special protections, yet little research has been done to determine if other vulnerable groups exist. Secondary data analysis was conducted to determine if perceptions of alcohol advertising differ between groups based on their alcohol use and whether the definition of "vulnerable" should be expanded beyond demographic categories.

METHODS

Students (n = 326) from 2 U.S. colleges viewed 5 alcohol ads and rated them using a scale designed to detect violations of the alcohol industry's self-regulated marketing codes. Individuals with a history of excessive alcohol use, as measured by the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT), were considered potentially vulnerable to alcohol advertising and were compared against individuals without a history of excessive alcohol use. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to determine between-group differences in 4 dependent variables (ad appeal, perceived alcohol consumption, perceived excessive drinking, and perceived responsible drinking). All models were adjusted for age, race, ethnicity, sex, and parental alcohol use.

RESULTS

AUDIT risk categories were positively associated with ad appeal (p < 0.001), the amount of alcohol perceived to be consumed (p < 0.01), and perceptions of responsible drinking (p < 0.05). There was no significant associated with perceptions of excessive drinking.

CONCLUSIONS

Individuals with a history of heavy alcohol use perceived greater alcohol consumption in alcohol ads but perceived this consumption, which often met the definition for binge drinking, to be responsible. Stricter regulations may be needed to protect heavy alcohol users from the effects of alcohol advertising.

Predicting Regulatory Compliance in Beer Advertising on Facebook

Aims

The prevalence of alcohol advertising has been growing on social media platforms. The purpose of this study was to evaluate alcohol advertising on Facebook for regulatory compliance and thematic content.

Methods

A total of 50 Budweiser and Bud Light ads posted on Facebook within 1 month of the 2015 NFL Super Bowl were evaluated for compliance with a self-regulated alcohol advertising code and for thematic content. An exploratory sensitivity/specificity analysis was conducted to determine if thematic content could predict code violations.

Results

The code violation rate was 82%, with violations prevalent in guidelines prohibiting the association of alcohol with success (Guideline 5) and health benefits (Guideline 3). Overall, 21 thematic content areas were identified. Displaying the product (62%) and adventure/sensation seeking (52%) were the most prevalent. There was perfect specificity (100%) for 10 content areas for detecting any code violation (animals, negative emotions, positive emotions, games/contests/promotions, female characters, minorities, party, sexuality, night-time, sunrise) and high specificity (>80%) for 10 content areas for detecting violations of guidelines intended to protect minors (animals, negative emotions, famous people, friendship, games/contests/promotions, minorities, responsibility messages, sexuality, sunrise, video games).

Conclusions

The high prevalence of code violations indicates a failure of self-regulation to prevent potentially harmful content from appearing in alcohol advertising, including explicit code violations (e.g. sexuality). Routine violations indicate an unwillingness to restrict advertising content for public health purposes, and statutory restrictions may be necessary to sufficiently deter alcohol producers from repeatedly violating marketing codes.

Short summary

Violations of a self-regulated alcohol advertising code are prevalent in a sample of beer ads published on Facebook near the US National Football League's Super Bowl. Overall, 16 thematic content areas demonstrated high specificity for code violations. Alcohol advertising codes should be updated to expressly prohibit the use of such content.

Do marketing and alcohol treatment/public health experts think televised alcohol advertisements abide by regulatory guidelines?

Televised alcohol advertisements in the United Kingdom must abide by the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Code, which provides guidelines concerning advertisements not implying, condoning or encouraging immoderate, irresponsible or antisocial drinking. Previously, 75 per cent of 373 general public respondents were shown one of seven advertisements rated a breach of at least one guideline. This study assessed whether experts in marketing (n = 25) and alcohol treatment/public health (n = 25) perceived the same seven television alcohol advertisements as complying with the Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice Code. Overall, 83 per cent of advertisements were rated as breaching at least one guideline. This provides further proof that self-regulatory alcohol guidelines are not fit for purpose.

Reliability and validity of the Alcohol Marketing Assessment Rating Tool (AMART)

OBJECTIVE

Current national responses to the monitoring and prevention of alcohol marketing to vulnerable populations, such as youth, typically rely on partial bans, co-regulation and industry self-regulation. Efforts to evaluate compliance with existing regulations are often cumbersome and resource intensive. We sought to develop a short questionnaire to assess compliance of alcohol advertising to existing alcohol industry self-regulated marketing codes.

METHODS

Questions for the Alcohol Marketing Assessment Rating Tool (AMART) were taken from a longer rating instrument that was originally developed to detect violations of a self-regulated alcohol marketing code. Secondary analysis of data from three studies of alcohol advertisements was performed to determine the reliability and validity of AMART at detecting code violations, using the longer form as the criterion. One sample was used as an exploratory set. Two samples were used to validate the questionnaire.

RESULTS

In the exploratory set, the reliability of AMART was considered near perfect (kappa = 0.92). Sensitivity was 97%, and specificity was 100%. Positive predictive value (PPV) was perfect and negative predictive value (NPV) was approximately 90%. In the validation sets, reliability was considered substantial to near perfect (kappa = 0.71-0.94). Specificity and PPV remained perfect, and NPV was 86%-90%.

CONCLUSION

The AMART is a reliable tool to detect violations of a self-regulated marketing code in alcohol advertising. It significantly decreases the amount of resources needed to evaluate a finite number of advertisements.

Malt Beverage Brand Popularity Among Youth and Youth-Appealing Advertising Content

BACKGROUND

This study examined whether alcohol brands more popular among youth are more likely to have aired television advertisements that violated the alcohol industry's voluntary code by including youth-appealing content.

METHODS

We obtained a complete list of 288 brand-specific beer advertisements broadcast during the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) men's and women's basketball tournaments from 1999 to 2008. All ads were rated by a panel of health professionals using a modified Delphi method to assess the presence of youth-appealing content in violation of the alcohol industry's voluntary code. The ads represented 23 alcohol brands. The popularity of these brands was operationalized as the brand-specific popularity of youth alcohol consumption in the past 30 days, as determined by a 2011 to 2012 national survey of underage drinkers. Brand-level popularity was used as the exposure variable to predict the odds of having advertisements with youth-appealing content violations.

RESULTS

Accounting for other covariates and the clustering of advertisements within brands, increased brand popularity among underage youth was associated with significantly increased odds of having youth-appeal content violations in ads televised during the NCAA basketball tournament games (adjusted odds ratio = 1.70, 95% CI: 1.38, 2.09).

CONCLUSIONS

Alcohol brands popular among underage drinkers are more likely to air television advertising that violates the industry's voluntary code which proscribes youth-appealing content.

Alcohol marketing in the Americas and Spain during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Tournament

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

To identify the nature of visual alcohol references in alcohol advertisements during televised broadcasts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup Tournament matches and to evaluate cross-national differences according to alcohol marketing policy restrictiveness.

DESIGN

Content analysis using the Delphi method and identification of in-game sponsorships.

SETTING

Television broadcasts of the 2014 FIFA World Cup in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Finland, France, Mexico, Spain and the United States.

CASES

Eighty-seven alcohol advertisements; 20 matches.

MEASUREMENTS

Quantitative rating scales, combined with the Delphi rating technique, were used to determine compliance of the alcohol advertisements with the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking's (IARD) Guiding Principles. Recordings of five matches from four countries were also used to identify the number of in- and out-of-game alcohol brand appearances.

FINDINGS

A total of 86.2% of all unique alcohol advertisements contained at least one violation of IARD's Guiding Principles, with violation rates ranging from 72.7% (Mexico) to 100% (Brazil). Countries with the least restrictive marketing policies had a higher prevalence of violations in guidelines designed to protect minors. There were 2.76 in-game alcohol brand appearances and 0.83 out-of-game alcohol brand appearances per minute. Brand appearances did not differ across countries or according to a country's marketing policy restrictiveness.

CONCLUSIONS

Self-regulation and statutory policies were ineffective at limiting alcohol advertising during the 2014 FIFA World Cup Tournament television broadcasts. Most advertisements contained content that violated the self-regulation codes, and there were high levels of within-broadcast brand appearances.

Industry self-regulation of alcohol marketing: a systematic review of content and exposure research

BACKGROUND AND AIMS

With governments relying increasingly upon the alcohol industry's self-regulated marketing codes to restrict alcohol marketing activity, there is a need to summarize the findings of research relevant to alcohol marketing controls. This paper provides a systematic review of studies investigating the content of, and exposure to, alcohol marketing in relation to self-regulated guidelines.

METHODS

Peer-reviewed papers were identified through four literature search engines: SCOPUS, Web of Science, PubMed and PsychINFO. Non-peer-reviewed reports produced by public health agencies, alcohol research centers, non-governmental organizations and government research centers were also identified. Ninety-six publications met the inclusion criteria.

RESULTS

Of the 19 studies evaluating a specific marketing code and 25 content analysis studies reviewed, all detected content that could be considered potentially harmful to children and adolescents, including themes that appeal strongly to young men. Of the 57 studies of alcohol advertising exposure, high levels of youth exposure and high awareness of alcohol advertising were found for television, radio, print, digital and outdoor advertisements. Youth exposure to alcohol advertising has increased over time, even as greater compliance with exposure thresholds has been documented.

CONCLUSIONS

Violations of the content guidelines within self-regulated alcohol marketing codes are highly prevalent in certain media. Exposure to alcohol marketing, particularly among youth, is also prevalent. Taken together, the findings suggest that the current self-regulatory systems that govern alcohol marketing practices are not meeting their intended goal of protecting vulnerable populations.

Do alcohol advertisements for brands popular among underage drinkers have greater appeal among youth and young adults?

BACKGROUND

No previous study has determined whether there are differences in the youth appeal of alcohol advertisements for popular versus unpopular brands among underage drinkers. This paper provides a systematic investigation of the differential appeal of brand-level alcohol advertisements among underage youth and young adults in the United States.

METHODS

We examined 3 issues of 8 magazines popular among underage youth. From the advertised alcohol brands, we selected the ads for the top 10 and bottom 10 brands by prevalence of underage youth consumption, based on the results of a previous national survey. We assessed the ads' appeal using a sample of 211 students recruited from 1 graduate and 2 undergraduate courses at Boston University. Respondents rated the appeal of each advertisement on 4 dimensions: physical and social appeal, appeal to underage youth, perceived effectiveness, and liking. Using random-effects linear regression, we compared the appeal of advertisements for popular versus unpopular brands.

RESULTS

On each dimension, the ads for popular youth alcohol brands were rated as significantly more appealing than the ads for unpopular brands. The magnitude of this difference was 0.26 standard deviation for the physical and social appeal score, 0.25 for the appeal to underage youth score, 0.21 for the perceived effectiveness score, and 0.16 for the liking score.

CONCLUSIONS

Advertising for alcohol brands that are popular among youth contain elements that are more likely to appeal to underage youth and young adults than ads for brands that are relatively unpopular among young drinkers.

Regulating alcohol advertising: content analysis of the adequacy of federal and self-regulation of magazine advertisements, 2008-2010

OBJECTIVES

We analyzed beer, spirits, and alcopop magazine advertisements to determine adherence to federal and voluntary advertising standards. We assessed the efficacy of these standards in curtailing potentially damaging content and protecting public health.

METHODS

We obtained data from a content analysis of a census of 1795 unique advertising creatives for beer, spirits, and alcopops placed in nationally available magazines between 2008 and 2010. We coded creatives for manifest content and adherence to federal regulations and industry codes.

RESULTS

Advertisements largely adhered to existing regulations and codes. We assessed only 23 ads as noncompliant with federal regulations and 38 with industry codes. Content consistent with the codes was, however, often culturally positive in terms of aspirational depictions. In addition, creatives included degrading and sexualized images, promoted risky behavior, and made health claims associated with low-calorie content.

CONCLUSIONS

Existing codes and regulations are largely followed regarding content but do not adequately protect against content that promotes unhealthy and irresponsible consumption and degrades potentially vulnerable populations in its depictions. Our findings suggest further limitations and enhanced federal oversight may be necessary to protect public health.

Assessing restrictiveness of national alcohol marketing policies

AIMS

To develop an approach for monitoring national alcohol marketing policies globally, an area of the World Health Organization's (WHO) Global Alcohol Strategy.

METHODS

Data on restrictiveness of alcohol marketing policies came from the 2002 and 2008 WHO Global Surveys on Alcohol and Health. We included four scales in a sensitivity analysis to determine optimal weights to score countries on their marketing policies and applied the selected scale to assess national marketing policy restrictiveness.

RESULTS

Nearly, 36% of countries had no marketing restrictions. The overall restrictiveness levels were not significantly different between 2002 and 2008. The number of countries with strict marketing regulations did not differ across years.

CONCLUSION

This method of monitoring alcohol marketing restrictiveness helps track progress towards implementing WHO'S Global Alcohol Strategy. Findings indicate a consistent lack of restrictive policies over time, making this a priority area for national and global action.

An empirical evaluation of the US Beer Institute's self-regulation code governing the content of beer advertising

OBJECTIVES

We evaluated advertising code violations using the US Beer Institute guidelines for responsible advertising.

METHODS

We applied the Delphi rating technique to all beer ads (n = 289) broadcast in national markets between 1999 and 2008 during the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament games. Fifteen public health professionals completed ratings using quantitative scales measuring the content of alcohol advertisements (e.g., perceived actor age, portrayal of excessive drinking) according to 1997 and 2006 versions of the Beer Institute Code.

RESULTS

Depending on the code version, exclusion criteria, and scoring method, expert raters found that between 35% and 74% of the ads had code violations. There were significant differences among producers in the frequency with which ads with violations were broadcast, but not in the proportions of unique ads with violations. Guidelines most likely to be violated included the association of beer drinking with social success and the use of content appealing to persons younger than 21 years.

CONCLUSIONS

The alcohol industry's current self-regulatory framework is ineffective at preventing content violations but could be improved by the use of new rating procedures designed to better detect content code violations.

A new method for evaluating compliance with industry self-regulation codes governing the content of alcohol advertising

BACKGROUND

This study evaluated the use of a modified Delphi technique in combination with a previously developed alcohol advertising rating procedure to detect content violations in the U.S. Beer Institute Code. A related aim was to estimate the minimum number of raters needed to obtain reliable evaluations of code violations in television commercials.

METHODS

Six alcohol ads selected for their likelihood of having code violations were rated by community and expert participants (N = 286). Quantitative rating scales were used to measure the content of alcohol advertisements based on alcohol industry self-regulatory guidelines. The community group participants represented vulnerability characteristics that industry codes were designed to protect (e.g., age <21); experts represented various health-related professions, including public health, human development, alcohol research, and mental health. Alcohol ads were rated on 2 occasions separated by 1 month. After completing Time 1 ratings, participants were randomized to receive feedback from 1 group or the other.

RESULTS

Findings indicate that (i) ratings at Time 2 had generally reduced variance, suggesting greater consensus after feedback, (ii) feedback from the expert group was more influential than that of the community group in developing group consensus, (iii) the expert group found significantly fewer violations than the community group, (iv) experts representing different professional backgrounds did not differ among themselves in the number of violations identified, and (v) a rating panel composed of at least 15 raters is sufficient to obtain reliable estimates of code violations.

CONCLUSIONS

The Delphi technique facilitates consensus development around code violations in alcohol ad content and may enhance the ability of regulatory agencies to monitor the content of alcoholic beverage advertising when combined with psychometric-based rating procedures.

Risky messages in alcohol advertising, 2003-2007: results from content analysis

PURPOSE

To assess the content of alcohol advertising in youth-oriented U.S. magazines, with specific attention to subject matter pertaining to risk and sexual connotations and to youth exposure to these ads.

METHODS

This study consisted of a content analysis of a census of 1,261 unique alcohol advertisements ("creatives") recurring 2,638 times ("occurrences") in 11 U.S. magazines with disproportionately youthful readerships between 2003 and 2007. Advertisements were assessed for content relevant to injury, overconsumption, addiction, and violations of industry guidelines (termed "risk" codes), as well as for sexism and sexual activity.

RESULTS

During the 5-year study period, more than one-quarter of occurrences contained content pertaining to risk, sexism, or sexual activity. Problematic content was concentrated in a minority of brands, mainly beer and spirits brands. Those brands with higher youth-to-adult viewership ratios were significantly more likely to have a higher percentage of occurrences with addiction content and violations of industry guidelines. Ads with violations of industry guidelines were more likely to be found in magazines with higher youth readerships.

CONCLUSIONS

The prevalence of problematic content in magazine alcohol advertisements is concentrated in advertising for beer and spirits brands, and violations of industry guidelines and addiction content appear to increase with the size of youth readerships, suggesting that individuals aged <21 years may be more likely to see such problematic content than adults.

Propaganda de álcool e associação ao consumo de cerveja por adolescentes

OBJETIVO: Analisar a associação entre propaganda de álcool e o consumo de cerveja por adolescentes. MÉTODOS: Foram entrevistados 1.115 estudantes de 7º e 8º anos de três escolas públicas de São Bernardo do Campo, SP, em 2006. As variáveis independentes foram: atenção prestada às propagandas de álcool, crença na veracidade das propagandas, resposta afetiva às propagandas, uso prévio de cigarro, entre outras. A variável dependente foi consumo de cerveja nos últimos 30 dias. Análises de regressões logísticas univariada e múltipla foram realizadas. Idade, importância dada à religião e ter banheiro em casa foram utilizadas como controle. RESULTADOS: O consumo de cerveja nos últimos 30 dias esteve associado ao uso de cigarro (OR = 4,551), ter uma marca preferida de bebida alcoólica (OR = 5,150), não ser monitorado pelos pais (OR = 2,139), achar que as festas que freqüentam parecem-se com as de comerciais (OR = 1,712), prestar muita atenção aos comerciais (OR = 1,563) e acreditar que os comerciais falam a verdade (OR = 2,122). Essa associação manteve-se mesmo na presença de outras variáveis associadas ao seu consumo. CONCLUSÕES: As propagandas de bebidas alcoólicas associam-se positivamente ao consumo recente de cerveja, por remetem os adolescentes à própria realidade ou por fazê-los acreditar em sua veracidade. Limitar a veiculação de propagandas de bebidas alcoólicas pode ser um dos caminhos para a prevenção do uso e abuso de álcool por adolescentes.

Ineficácia da autorregulamentação das propagandas de bebidas alcoólicas: uma revisão sistemática da literatura internacional

OBJETIVO: A literatura científica mais recente aponta que a publicidade de bebidas alcoólicas influencia o comportamento, particularmente o consumo precoce e em grandes quantidades por crianças e adolescentes. Da perspectiva da saúde pública, a publicidade de bebidas alcoólicas deve ser restringida. Em muitos países, assim como no Brasil, os limites são estabelecidos pela autorregulamentação (ou seja, controlados pela própria comunidade publicitária). Analisou-se na presente revisão o conjunto dos trabalhos publicados na literatura internacional sobre este tipo de controle. MÉTODO: Realizou-se uma revisão bibliográfica sistemática de trabalhos que investigaram a eficácia da autorregulamentação da publicidade de bebidas alcoólicas. A busca foi feita nas bases de dados Medline, SciELO, Camy e Google Scholar, entre 1991 e 2010, bem como pela técnica de "bola de neve" para a indicação dos principais autores no tema. Foram considerados para o presente propósito 11 artigos. DISCUSSÃO: O conjunto dos trabalhos obtidos aponta que a autorregulamentação da publicidade de bebidas alcoólicas é pouco eficaz, não cumprindo com os objetivos de evitar, por exemplo, publicidade direcionada às crianças e adolescentes. CONCLUSÃO: Outras medidas devem ser consideradas para o controle e a veiculação das propagandas de bebidas alcoólicas, tais como monitoramento independente e controle legal.

Public health tools for holding self-regulators accountable: lessons from the alcohol experience

Self-regulation is a common strategy used by industries to avoid or supplement statutory health and safety regulation of their products and practices. The public health experience with self-regulation in the alcohol industry provides methods and lessons relevant to health educators and advocates working in other public health fields. Methods for and examples and limitations of monitoring content and placement of marketing messages are described. The alcohol experience shows that, although self-regulation has many drawbacks in terms of protecting the health of the public, there are tools available for valid monitoring of self-regulated activities that, when combined with aggressive dissemination of results to media and policy makers, can make self-regulation more accountable and build an evidence base for effective measures to be taken.

Assessment of self-regulatory code violations in Brazilian television beer advertisements

OBJECTIVE

Research suggests that alcoholic beverage advertisements may have an adverse effect on teenagers and young adults, owing to their vulnerability to suggestive message content. This study was designed to evaluate perceived violations of the content guidelines of the Brazilian alcohol marketing self-regulation code, based on ratings of the five most popular beer advertisements broadcast on television in the summer of 2005-2006 and during the 2006 FIFA (Federation Internationale de Football Association) World Cup games.

METHOD

Five beer advertisements were selected from a previous study showing that they were perceived to be highly appealing to a sample of Brazilian teenagers. These advertisements were evaluated by a sample of Brazilian high school students using a rating procedure designed to measure the content of alcohol advertisements covered in industry self-regulation codes.

RESULTS

All five advertisements were found to violate multiple guidelines of the Brazilian code of marketing self-regulation. The advertisement with the greatest number of violations was Antarctica's "Male Repellent," which was perceived to violate 11 of the 16 guidelines in the code. Two advertisements had nine violations, and one had eight. The guidelines most likely to be violated by these advertisements were Guideline 1, which is aimed at protecting children and teenagers, and Guideline 2, which prohibits content encouraging excessive and irresponsible alcoholic beverage consumption.

CONCLUSIONS

The five beer advertisements rated as most appealing to Brazilian teenagers were perceived by a sample of the same population to have violated numerous principles of the Brazilian self-regulation code governing the marketing of alcoholic beverages. Because of these numerous perceived code violations, it now seems important for regulatory authorities to submit industry marketing content to more systematic evaluation by young people and public health experts and for researchers to focus more on the ways in which alcohol advertising influences early onset of drinking and excessive alcohol consumption.

O impacto da publicidade de bebidas alcoólicas sobre o consumo entre jovens: revisão da literatura internacional

OBJETIVO: Problemas relacionados ao consumo de álcool são freqüentes, especialmente entre a população jovem. A publicidade de bebidas alcoólicas é um dos fatores passíveis de modificação com impacto no aumento do consumo de álcool. MÉTODO: Foi realizada uma revisão bibliográfica de trabalhos que investigaram de diversos pontos de vista o impacto da publicidade do álcool sobre o consumo. A busca foi feita nas bases de dados Medline, SciELO, PsychoInfo e Google Scholar no período entre 1990 e 2008 e utilizou-se a técnica de " bola de neve" para a indicação de autores mais profícuos na área. Obtiveram-se mais de uma centena de artigos. RESULTADOS: O conjunto de trabalhos aponta que fatores como exposição à publicidade e atratividade da publicidade de bebidas alcoólicas estão relacionados com uma maior expectativa de consumo futuro e com um consumo maior e mais precoce, principalmente entre adolescentes e adultos jovens. Apesar das dificuldades metodológicas, estudos econométricos mais recentes consideram que a redução e/ou banimento de publicidade teria efeito de redução do consumo de álcool. Questões referentes às bases neurofisiológicas do processo de tomada de decisões e da liberdade de escolha no contexto da exposição à publicidade também são discutidas. CONCLUSÕES: O conhecimento atual sobre o tema indica que a redução da exposição à publicidade tem impacto sobre o consumo de álcool, principalmente entre os mais jovens.