Relation between recall of alcohol advertisements and alcohol consumption in adolescence

Abstract

Alcohol advertisement employs multiple conflicts in different sectors. From one hand, health promoters fair of possible negative influence of alcohol advertisement on peoples’ health, on the other hand, industrials seek to profit from alcohol trade ignoring future consequences in individual and social level. Adolescents are especially vulnerable to social influence, mainly to peer pressure, but also to other social and informational factors as they start to experiment with alcohol consumption. Therefore, evidence on alcohol advertisement effects on prevalence of alcohol consumption is still incongruent. Methods. Participants of the study were 101 9th-10th graders from one Lithuanian school (45.5% males). The set of visual stimulus (well known alcohol advertising pictures (12) and expressions (12)) was developed to evaluate the level of recall of alcohol advertisements. The self-reported questionnaire was used to assess alcohol consumption of boys and girls. Results. The results of this study showed that adolescents remember about 74% of alcohol advertising pictures and about 45% of alcohol advertising expressions (48% of all alcohol advertisements); boys remember advertising expressions better than girls. The data showed that the better girls remember beer advertisement, the more beer they drink. No other significant relations between recall of alcohol advertisement and the frequency of alcohol consumption or the amount of alcohol consumption were found. Also the data showed significant relation between recall of alcohol advertisement and knowledge of alcohol drinks brands in adolescence. Conclusion. Partial relations between recall of alcohol advertisement and alcohol consumption in adolescence were found.