AGs Call for Further Review of Alcohol Marketing

In response to a Federal Trade Commission request for public comment on an additional review of issues related to alcohol marketing, a committee of state Attorneys General have urged the commission to take a hard look at the role that alcohol marketing plays in promoting underage drinking.

The FTC’s request asked whether it should collect information from alcohol advertisers, and, if so, what information should be collected regarding sales and marketing expenditures, compliance with self-regulatory guidelines and complaint procedures.

The National Association of Attorneys General Youth Access to Alcohol Committee, formed in 2004, sent a letter to the FTC last week saying that it was in the public interest for the FTC to collect updated information from alcohol advertisers, including spending on TV, radio, print, Web, outdoor, sponsorship, P-O-P materials, product placement, college marketing and bar promotions.

“One of the things that our committee is looking at is why youth have such a great thirst for alcohol,” Jessica Maurer, special assistant attorney general for the state of Maine, said yesterday. “We believe there are many forces at play and we think a part of that driving drumbeat in the culture is alcohol advertising. It’s just everywhere.”

If the review were to go forward, it would be the third of its type aimed at the alcohol industry. Reviews in 1999 and 2003 called the industry on the carpet for using a standard that said that 50% of its ad audience must be 21 or over for measured media. That standard has since been changed to 70%, however, the committee is asking the FTC to look into setting a standard that no more than 15% of the audience is age 12 to 20.

“A reduction from the 30% standard to a 15% standard would address youth ‘overexposure’ to alcohol advertising, which occurs when youth are over-represented in the audience exposed to advertising, relative to their presence in the general population,” the committee said in its May 8 letter to the FTC.

The committee includes 26 Attorneys General of which 20 signed onto the FTC request. The committee was created to study youth exposure to alcohol advertising and access to alcohol and educate state AGs on ways to reduce access and change social norms about underage drinking.

“Alcoholism is a major pediatric disease in this nation,” said Attorney General Steve Rowe (ME), a committee chair, in a statement. “Young people are starting to drink at an earlier age and drinking more aggressively than ever before.”

Also in its letter, the committee said that it was convinced that the industry “should and can do more to reduce the level of underage consumption of alcohol.”

The 20 states that signed the letter are: Maine, Arizona, Utah, Connecticut, Hawaii, Delaware, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, California and Wyoming.