A study targeting the effect of the alcohol industry’s television advertising on youth is adding fuel to lawsuits blaming underage drinking on the $116 billion industry.
Several class-action lawsuits, touted as the next tobacco litigation, have been filed recently against alcoholic-beverage companies, such as Coors Brewing Co., Bacardi & Co. Ltd. and Heineken NV, saying they market to underage consumers.
One lawsuit, seeking class-action status, was filed in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia in November by Ayman Hakki, a D.C. plastic surgeon. Another was filed last week by a Reno, Nev., mother against Coors for advertising to underage drinkers.
The companies have denied the accusations, adding that they invest millions of dollars in programs combating underage drinking.
But the study, released yesterday by Georgetown University’s Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, said the industry spent more than $990 million on television ads in 2002 that were watched by viewers ranging from 12 to 20.
Teens were more likely than adults on a per capita basis to have seen 66,218 of the ads in 2002, a 30 percent increase from 2001, the study said.
Total alcohol ads on network, local and cable television increased 39 percent from the previous year to 289,381 ads in 2002, the study said.
Ads for distilled spirits and low-alcohol alternatives such as Smirnoff Ice drove up the 2002 ad boom.
Washington public-health advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest said the study gives credence to lawsuits holding the alcohol industry liable for underage drinking.
“This study is another nail in the coffin,” said George Hacker, director for the group’s alcohol policies project. Mr. Hacker called the alcohol suits “gate openers” for a flood of litigation similar to tobacco lawsuits that resulted in a $246 billion settlement.
David Jernigan, research director at the center and an author of the study, said the top 15 television shows for teens, such as “That ’70s Show” and “Fear Factor,” in 2002 and the Olympic Games ran alcohol ads.
Six of the shows, five on the WB and one on Fox, had youthful audiences, Mr. Jernigan said, adding that underage viewers had greater exposure to beer and ale ads than they had for ones selling soda.
But the Beer Institute, a Washington trade group, said the Georgetown study revealed that 90 percent of the total audience for television shows with alcohol ads were 21 or older.
“Most importantly, numerous independent studies have found no significant link between advertising and underage drinking,” said President Jeff Becker. He emphasized that parents have the most influence on a child’s decision to drink.
The Georgetown University group, which started monitoring the ads in 2002, is tracking the number of alcohol ads viewed by youngsters in 2003. The center will release results in five to six months, Mr. Jernigan said.
He expected the 2003 numbers to be slightly lower, primarily because the Olympic Games were not held that year.
More young people drink alcohol than use other drugs or smoke tobacco, costing the nation $53 billion a year, according to the Institute of Medicine, part of the National Academy of Sciences.
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