Adolescent Exposure to Alcohol Advertising in Magazines: An Evaluation of Advertising Placement in Relation to Underage Youth Readership

Purpose: To investigate whether alcoholic beverages popular among underage youths are more likely than those less popular among these youths to be advertised in magazines with high underage youth readerships. Methods: We compared the alcohol advertisement placement in 118 magazines during the period 2002 to 2006 for alcoholic beverages popular among youths to that of alcoholic beverages less likely to be consumed by youths. Using a random effects probit model, we examined the relationship between a magazine's youth (ages 12-20) readership and the probability of youth or nonyouth alcoholic beverage types being advertised in a magazine, controlling for young adult (ages 21-34) readership, cost of advertising, and other factors. Results: Youth alcoholic beverage types were significantly more likely to be advertised in magazines with higher youth readership. Holding all other variables constant, the ratio of the probability of a youth alcoholic beverage type being advertised to that of a nonyouth alcoholic beverage type being advertised in a given magazine increased from 1.5 to 4.6 as youth readership increased from 0% to 40%. In magazines with the highest levels of youth readership, youth alcoholic beverage types were more than four times more likely to be advertised than nonyouth alcoholic beverage types. Conclusions: Alcoholic beverages popular among underage youths are more likely than those less popular among youths to be advertised in magazines with high youth readerships. (C) 2009 Society for Adolescent Medicine. All rights reserved.