Dodd says alcohol ads inappropriately target children, calls for national media prevention initiative

by Kevin Joy

WASHINGTON - From beer commercials featuring scantily clad women wrestling in a water fountain to south-of-the-border spring break television broadcasts and sexy, suggestive magazine advertisements portraying a life of glamour, young people are constantly exposed to alcohol marketing. And so they drink, said Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn.

The federal government isn't spending enough money to educate parents and minors about alcohol's consequences, Dodd said this week. He urged a coordinated national effort to reduce and prevent underage drinking.

"The federal government spent $1.8 billion to discourage illegal drug use and only $71 million to discourage youth alcohol use" in 2000, Dodd told a subcommittee of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee. "More must be done."

Nearly 11 million youths aged 12 to20 said they consumed alcohol last year - 7 million of them by having five or more drinks in an evening, according to a survey by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Administration, a branch of the Health and Human Services Department.

In Connecticut, 20.6 percent of 12-to-17-year-olds said they have consumed alcohol, the sixth-highest rate of underage consumption in the nation, HHS reported.

Dodd blasted the ads both for their images --of video games, sexuality and women who appear to be under 21 -- and for their marketing methods. He said television ads often air in afternoon and early evening time slots and that print ads frequently appear in youth-oriented publications.

"What's going on with an industry where beer ads air during 'Buffy the Vampire Slayer,' 'Dark Angel,' 'Gilmore Girls' and 'The Daily Show' or in magazines like Vibe and Spin?" Dodd asked."What's the point of advertising to that age group when you know they can't purchase the product?"

In fact, one-fifth of yearly liquor profits are from sales to underage drinkers, according to a study published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

Wendy Hamilton, president of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, told senators she thought many parents were unaware of the problem's seriousness, and that even the ones who permit teenagers to drink at home or while supervised still put their children at risk. She said alcohol was a major catalyst for violence at a suburban Chicago high school last spring, when a throng of students beat and threw mud and feces at younger girls.

Likewise, the Connecticut Coalition to Stop Underage Drinking reported that 73 percent of the state's high-school students who drink get their alcohol from people who buy it for them. About one-third of high school students obtain liquor with parental permission and about two-thirds of teen drinking occurs at parties in their own homes, according to the report.

David DeAngelis, a 17-year-old high school senior from North Haven, Conn., described to senators the relaxed attitudes held among a number of his peers and their parents.

"Many parents not only condone the use of alcohol, but also provide liquor to their children and their children's friends," DeAngelis said. While he cited a number of incidents where illegal consumption had occurred in his community, he added, "This is not a problem confined to North Haven."

Meanwhile, the problem's financial and social expenses are too great to ignore, panelists at the hearing said. Teen alcohol use costs Americans about $53 billion a year- including $19 billion from automobile accidents and $29 billion from alcohol-related violent crime, according to a study by the federal Institute of Medicine published in September.

Dodd said the country could deal a significant blow to the alcohol industry with a well-funded media campaign similar to the one that has been used against cigarette smoking. He said public service ads targeting the dangers of cigarettes have affected popular perception and spawned restrictions on public smoking.

"The tobacco industry never believed it would happen-and it did," he said. "An awful lot of this has to do with advertising."