Alcopops and Youth

The American Medical Association (AMA) estimates that about 10% of all alcohol in the United States is purchased by underage drinkers. Minors are believed to account for about $10 billion in sales annually. In 2002, sales of alcopops were up 43%, according to Chicago Data Analyst Resources, Inc. The products are thought to be successful because they are the classic “bridge” drink (transitional drink to harder liquor) for people who do not like the taste of alcohol.


When Beverly Adey, a housewife living near London, spotted fruit-flavored drinks with a Power Rangers label at her local supermarket, she thought members of her young family would enjoy them. So she took some home.

Minutes after her children opened the containers and drank from them, they began suffering from the effects of alcohol. Tests carried out by local officials revealed that the "Power Ranger Freeze Drinks," packaged apparently with teens in mind, contained 4.5 % alcohol.

Age:
The sweetness of alcopops likely makes the beverage popular among youth. According to a study done by Glasgow University, alcopop popularity surges among youth between the ages of 13 and 16. According to Monitoring the Future (MTF), 58.4% of high school seniors reported using alcopops in 2005, an increase of 3.2% since 2003. Among current drinkers, 12.9% of eighth-graders, 23.1% of 10th-graders, and 30.5% of 12th-graders reported drinking alcopops in the past month.

An Alcohol Policies Project study on alcopops determined that teens are twice as likely to have tried alcopops as adults and three times more likely than adults to be aware of alcopops. This same study determined that 51% of teens between the ages of 17 and 18 and 35% of teens between the ages of 14 and 16 have tried alcopops.

Gender:
Research also finds that girls are more at-risk for alcopop use than boys. The American Medical Association (AMA) conducted two nationwide polls which revealed the extent of underage consumption of alcopops, particulary among female youth. The following were key findings:

• Approximately one-third of teen girls report having tried alcopops, and one out of six has done so in the past six months.
• More teen girls have had alcopops in the past six months than teen boys (31% versus 19%).
• Teen girls report drinking alcopops more than other alcoholic drinks, whereas adult women age 21 or older rank it as their least-consumed alcoholic beverage.
• For teens that have had alcoholic drinks in the past six months, girls drank more in all categories (beer, wine, alcopops and hard-liquor drinks) than boys.
• Nearly one in six teen girls who have drunk alcopops in the past six months has been sexually active after drinking.
• One out of four teen girls who have tried alcopops have driven after drinking or ridden in a car with a driver who had been drinking.
• One out of five teen girls who have tried alcopops have thrown up or passed out from drinking.

The AMA expressed a position of concern around these findings. They noted that the percentage of girls who drink is rising faster than boys, and that alcopops, also known as “girlie drinks,” may be a contributing factor to this trend.

Advertising:
The advertising of alcopops to youth is also an issue of concern. One of the greatest concerns with alcopops is the widespread misconception that they contain less alcohol than most beers—in fact, beer contains less alcohol per serving.

A 12-ounce alcopop, a 12-ounce mug of beer, a cocktail with 1.5 ounces of spirits and a 5-ounce glass of wine contain the same amount of alcohol.

Although spending on alcopops advertising has declined since 2002, its overexposure to underage youth grew. On a per capita basis, underage youth were exposed to 63% more alcopops magazine advertising than legal-age adults in 2001 due to the fact that more alcopops ads ran in youth-oriented magazines than magazines with primarily an adult readership, and this grew to 72% in 2002, and finally to 92% in 2003.

The American Medical Association’s nationwide survey (2004) also found that alcopop advertising is particularly enticing towards female youth. Their data found that half (51%) of teen girls have seen alcopop ads. In addition, nearly half of all girls aged 16-18 report seeing alcopops ads on TV, compared to only 34 % of women 21 or older. Teen girls also report observing more alcopops ads on TV, radio, billboards, the Internet and in magazines than women 21 or older.
In addition, a study by Jernigan et al (2004) revealed that girls ages 12-20 saw 95 % more magazine ads for alcopops than women over 21. Women 21-34, the age group identified as the target audience for alcohol ads, were actually less exposed per capita to magazine advertising for alcopops and beer than girls aged 12-20.

References