Perceptions of alcohol advertising content by vulnerable populations: Is industry self-regulation necessary and sufficient?

From a public health perspective, industry self-regulation codes are designed to protect vulnerable population groups from exposure to ad content that could influence problem drinking. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between individual difference vulnerability factors and perceptions of advertising content. A sample of 327 adults rated the content of five alcohol advertisements, selected because they were considered to contain code violations, in terms of the appeal, age and drinking behavior of the characters depicted in the ads. The following vulnerability factors were associated with higher ratings of the perceived appeal of the actors: age under 21, early age onset of problem drinking, greater alcohol dependence, family history of alcohol problems, higher scores on a measure of sensation seeking personality and positive alcohol expectancies. Moreover, participants who experienced early onset of problem drinking, who drank heavily or binge drink frequently, and who had higher positive alcohol expectancies, tended to perceive greater amounts of drinking in the alcohol advertisements. Females and minority viewers tended to perceive the actors to be of younger age. The results indicate that vulnerable population groups are differentially sensitive to the contents of alcohol advertisements that violate industry self-regulation codes, and suggest that while regulation of ad content may be necessary, self-regulation by industry may not be sufficient to protect vulnerable populations.