Assessing the impact of stricter alcohol advertising standards: the case of Beam Global Spirits

• Published date: 01 August 2016
• Author: David H. Jernigan,Craig S. Ross,Alicia Sparks
• Date: 01 August 2016
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/pa.1584

■Academic Paper

Assessing the impact of stricter alcohol

advertising standards: the case of Beam

Global Spirits

Craig S. Ross

1

*, Alicia Sparks

2

and David H. Jernigan

2

1

Fiorente Media, Inc., Boston, MA, USA

2

Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore,

MD, USA

Reducing youth exposure to alcohol advertising is a global health priority. In most countries around the world, the

alcohol industry is given the opportunity to regulate itself with respect to advertising practices. Generally, the alcohol

industry self-regulations are lax, allowing youth to be disproportionately exposed to alcohol advertising. However,

Beam Global Spirits and Wine (Beam) voluntarily adopted more restrictive advertising standards in the United States

in 2007. This study assessed Beam’s compliance with their new standard and estimates its effect on youth exposure

and advertising costs. We found that Beam’s compliance with its more restrictive standards was imperfect, but

never-the-less, we estimated that youth exposure to alcohol advertising was reduced compared to other spirits

brands. Beam’s more restrictive standards did not increase their advertising costs, and therefore other alcohol compa-

nies should consider adopting similar standards around the world. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

BACKGROUND

Alcohol consumption is the number one modifiable

risk factor for disease and disability globally for per-

sons ages 15 to 49 (Lim et al., 2012). Evidence is

growing that alcohol advertising and promotion

are associated with alcohol initiation, consumption,

and health consequences (Anderson et al., 2009;

Grenard, Dent, & Stacy, 2013; Smith & Foxcroft,

2009). Reducing exposure to alcohol marketing

and promotion has been identified globally as a

public health priority (World Health Organization,

2010). Even so, in most countries around the world

alcohol companies have been granted the privilege

to regulate their own advertising and marketing

practices (EGTA The Association of Television and

Radio Sales Houses, 2011; Evans et al., 2003; Evans

& Kelly, 1999; Evans, Marcus, & Engle, 2008; Evans

et al., 2014; Jones & Donovan, 2002). For the most

part, these regulations are lax, permitting youth to

be disproportionately exposed to alcohol advertis-

ing (Jernigan, Ostroff, & Ross, 2005). Only one alco-

hol company has stepped forward to implement

more stringent alcohol advertising policies—Beam

Global Spirits and Wine (Beam) now part of

Suntory. In 2007 in the United States, Beam volun-

tarily adopted advertising policies that would

reduce the proportion of youth in the audience for

Beam brand advertisements. This study evaluates

the performance of Beam against its unique alcohol

advertising policies and estimates the impact of

these more stringent policies on both youth expo-

sure and Beam’s realized advertising costs.

We begin with a reviewof the evidence of an asso-

ciation between exposure to alcohol marketing and

drinking behavior. Two review studies have been

published that summarize findings from 14 longitu-

dinal studies of the association between alcohol

*Correspondence to: Craig S. Ross, Fiorente Media, Inc., PO Box

727, Natick, MA 01760 USA.

E-mail: csr@fiorentemedia.com

Journal of Public Affairs

Volume 16 Number 3 pp 245–254 (2016)

Published online 30 September 2015 in Wiley Online Library

(www.wileyonlinelibrary.com) DOI: 10.1002/pa.1584

Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.