A 1998 study by National Institute of Health (NIH) found that adolescents who drink alcoholic beverages are four times more likely to become alcoholics than those who begin at the age of twenty-one. Other studies have disturbingly shown that alcohol use on college campuses has been dramatically increasing within the last ten years. Reasons for these disturbing facts can be attributed to many things. A specific area that has been targeted as heavily influential to underage drinking is advertising/media. But, why should advertising and the media be targets towards battling underage drinking? .
One reason why many anti-alcohol campaigners connect underage drinking to media and advertisements is that: "alcoholic drinks are the most common beverages portrayed on television" (Pediatrics). Individuals who are shown drinking alcohol in advertisements or the media are usually portrayed as being glamorous and popular. Exposure to alcohol advertisements and television programming, for example, has been shown to be associated with positive beliefs about drinking and alcohol consumption (Pediatrics). Rarely are the negative effects of alcohol ever portrayed in movies or on television. For example, movies such as "Can't Hardly Wait" and "Varsity Blues" contain underage usage of alcohol as being practical and the "cool thing to do." Even G-rated children's movies contain scenes where beer and wine are prevalent. Researchers at the University of North Carolina stated that fifty percent of the children films they viewed contained scenes with alcohol and tobacco use. "Children and adolescents view movies of this nature and develop a relationship between exposure and attention to beer, and expectations to drink beer" (AORN Journal).
In addition, news programs barely cover stories where alcohol was/is a major factor in some unfortunate consequence. The British Medical Journal, September 8, 2001, went so far as to accuse many journalists as "writing about studies that conclude alcohol is rather good for one's health".
