Media, Message, and Culture

(Antrapology Class)

For years, the population has been exposed to different forms of media. Newspapers, magazines, television, films, radio, and more recently the Internet are ways of promoting ideas, spreading news, and advertising products. Alcoholism has always been a detriment to our society, especially in the hands of our youth. Many factors cause children to participate in the consumption of alcohol - alcoholic parents, peer pressure, and the media are major determining factors. The most influential factor, however, is the media, which is generally unregulated and uncensored.

Whether intentional or not, there has always been an existence of alcohol in all forms of the media. I examine how alcohol-brewing companies intentionally target youth in their advertising campaigns. I also analyze other forms of media such as film and the Internet to find examples of the use and display of alcohol, and how it affects, and is targeted towards youth.Alcohol manufacturers use a variety of unscrupulous techniques to advertise alcoholic beverages to children. Perhaps the worst example is Anheuser-Busch Co., the world's largest brewer, which uses child-enticing cartoon images of frogs, dogs, penguins and lizards in ads for Budweiser beer. These Budweiser cartoon characters are hugely popular with children, just like Joe Camel ads.

A KidCom Marketing study once found these Budweiser cartoon character ads were American children's favorite ads. This is no accident. Anheuser-Busch is conducting an advertising campaign to get children to start drinking beer. These Budweiser ads are unconscionable. So are Phillip Morris's Miller Lite "twist to open" commercials, which are among children's top 10 favorite ads, according to another study by KidCom. Hard liquor ads on television are equally unconscionable. In June, 1996, Joseph E. Seagrams & Sons Co. broke a 48 year old voluntary ban on advertising hard liquor on television.

Five months later, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) re-wrote its Code of Good Practice to allow its member distillers to advertise on radio and television. Even if these TV ads are aired only after 9 or 10 PM, they will still reach millions of American children. Alcohol advertising may increase alcohol consumption, including drinking by minors. Based on this effect, various municipalities around the country have attempted to ban alcohol advertising. These attempts have met with mixed results in the courts. This section will attempt to explain how a municipality can legally ban alcohol advertising.

Commercial Speech The only constitutional impediment to banning alcohol advertising is First Amendment freedom of speech. Alcohol producers and their advertising companies will usually bring suit against a municipality which bans alcohol advertisements, arguing that the ban is an unconstitutional abridgement of the freedom of speech. Advertising, however, is only "commercial speech," which is protected by the First Amendment 1. but not to the extent that political speech is protected.

Therefore, a municipality can regulate advertising much more than it can regulate "pure" First Amendment speech. Types of Alcohol Advertising Alcohol is advertised on billboards and other signs, in print, and on radio and ...