• by David Kaplan , February 4, 2005

First the good news for beer marketers: point of purchase advertising for alcoholic beverages really does work. The bad news: it works really well on adolescents.

A study from the research organization Rand Corporation found that kids who frequently viewed prominent beer advertising displays in grocery and convenience stores were more likely to begin drinking alcohol than peers who viewed less of these displays.

In addition, adolescents who had already tried alcohol increased their consumption the more alcohol ads they viewed in magazines and the more they saw beer concession stands at music and sporting events, according to the study.

The report's authors believe that a combination of a particular message and a particular venue helps influence the desirability and acceptance of drinking to youngsters.

"Advertising that links alcohol with everyday life--such as supermarket store displays--appears to have more influence on drinking initiation," said Phyllis Ellickson, the study's lead author.

One of the study's most surprising findings was that no evidence was found that television beer ads encouraged adolescents to begin drinking or increase their use of alcohol, although they cautioned that further study of TV advertising might be needed.

The study followed 3,111 South Dakota adolescents from seventh grade to ninth grade, collecting information about their alcohol use, television viewing, and exposure to several types of alcohol advertising. About half of the youths in the study were enrolled in an updated version of Project ALERT, a school-based program that provides lessons to seventh and eighth graders about alcohol, cigarettes, and marijuana.

The reason the authors chose South Dakota is because the state ranks among the top 10 states in rates of alcohol and drug dependence and binge drinking among adolescents and young adults, according to a Rand spokesman.