Alcohol advertising is often criticized for linking the consumption of alcohol with personal, social, sexual and business success. Everyone has heard the expression "sex sells", what may not be known is that marketing industries target other emotions such as, feeling lonely and fear of becoming a failure, just as much as sexual appeal. .
The problem with alcohol advertisements is "the fact that they do not portray the negative consequences of risky or excessive drinking, as well as potential health and other risks" (www.druginfo.com). The biggest and most specific concern are advertisements that use elements of youth culture, such as animation, music and fashion to create a positive association and affiliation with youth. .
In 1984 the drinking age changed from eighteen to twenty-one. Around this time alcohol industries, such as Budweiser, stared to use animations in their advertisements. Specifically, one commercial used animations to show a football player pop out of a magazine and use a Budweiser beer bottle cap as a football to play against another animated football team. When I first viewed this commercial I was intrigued by the animation and felt that kids younger than I, would find this interesting and cool, which is precisely the issue at hand. Children should not be intrigued by an advertisement for alcohol consumption. Many other alcohol companies, such as Hamm Beer, used animation to displayed a friendly looking woodchuck chopping piece of wood while a cheery bear appeared and started running on the chopped log while it was in water. I am not quite sure what the bear and woodchuck had to do with the alcoholic beverage the company was trying to advertise, but it most definitely got the attention of youth under the drinking age of twenty-one. Research shows,.
"A study on the responses of young people to alcohol advertising found that underage youth are drawn to music, animal and people characters, story and humor in alcohol advertising.