Are industry-sponsored alcohol responsibility messages responsible enough? An analysis of public service announcements and industry-sponsored responsibility messages in alcohol advertisements on national television in 2007

In response to concerns about the impact of alcohol advertising on youth, some alcohol companies have sponsored public service announcements and imbedded messages in alcohol advertisement urging people to drink “responsibly.” There is some evidence that, in terms of volume, alcohol advertisements completely overwhelm industry-sponsored and public-health sponsored PSAs. However, the extent to which responsibility messages are imbedded in advertisements is unknown. The present study examines the quantity and nature of responsibility messages imbedded in commercial ads, industry –sponsored PSAs, and public health sponsored PSAs in depth. We conducted a content analysis of all alcohol advertisements and PSAs on national network and cable television in 2007 using a comprehensive industry database.

We found that only a portion of advertisments included responsibility messages. The most common channel for the responsibility message was through text on the screen, and only a small amount used audio. The visual messages tended to be difficult to read – the responsibility messages was combined with other textual information, it lasted only a few seconds, and appeared toward the end of a spot. Furthermore, there was no portrayal of alcohol-related harm in any of the advertisements, meaning that negative consequences are unlikely to be associated with drinking. The results have implications for alcohol advertising policies.