NEW CAMY STUDY DOWN ON THE INDUSTRY
Just last month a study conducted at Penn State found that alcohol marketers do not, in fact, target youth and even go to great lengths to avoid them, despite what critics say. Nevertheless, the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth is again taking issues with the alcohol industry’s self-imposed guidelines for advertising by claiming that 14% of alcohol-related radio spots aired on programming where minors represented more than 30% of the listening audience.
Along with researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the group studied 67,404 ads that aired on 104 U.S. radio stations during the summer of 2004. It found that 9,158 ads ran in programming where the listening audience of youths 12 to 20 years old exceeded the beer industry's self-imposed listening audience threshold of 30%. While it’s an improvement from CAMY’s 2003 study, which found that 28% of alcohol ads had youth audiences great than 30%, it’s still over the mark. The study was published today in the CDC’s Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report, and claims that for 11 of the top 25 most advertised brands, almost half of the messages that reached minors resulted from radio buys that exceeded the 30% standard.
However, as the Beer Institute points out, the Federal Trade Commission questioned Camy’s research methodology in the 2003 report and rejected a call for an 85% adult audience placement guideline. They also pointed out that some advertising had been purchased in 2003 before the 70% placement standard was put in place. In fact, the new regulations had been in effect for less than a year by 2004.
"It is disingenuous for Camy in 2006 to retread data about radio ads that ran in the summer of 2004 when the organization was made well aware that some advertising for 2004 had already been purchased in 2003 before the 70% placement standard became effective, January 1, 2004," Beer Institute president Jeff Becker said in a statement.
"Overall compliance with our voluntary code was still very strong, as Camy noted in its own report, indicating that 86% of the radio placements in the markets studied already met the 70% standard in our Code. This underscores the effectiveness of self-regulation and our members’ ongoing commitment to responsible advertising."
Along with researchers from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the group studied 67,404 ads that aired on 104 U.S. radio stations during the summer of 2004. It found that 9,158 ads ran in programming where the listening audience of youths 12 to 20 years old exceeded the beer industry's self-imposed listening audience threshold of 30%. While it’s an improvement from CAMY’s 2003 study, which found that 28% of alcohol ads had youth audiences great than 30%, it’s still over the mark. The study was published today in the CDC’s Morbidity and Morality Weekly Report, and claims that for 11 of the top 25 most advertised brands, almost half of the messages that reached minors resulted from radio buys that exceeded the 30% standard.
However, as the Beer Institute points out, the Federal Trade Commission questioned Camy’s research methodology in the 2003 report and rejected a call for an 85% adult audience placement guideline. They also pointed out that some advertising had been purchased in 2003 before the 70% placement standard was put in place. In fact, the new regulations had been in effect for less than a year by 2004.
"It is disingenuous for Camy in 2006 to retread data about radio ads that ran in the summer of 2004 when the organization was made well aware that some advertising for 2004 had already been purchased in 2003 before the 70% placement standard became effective, January 1, 2004," Beer Institute president Jeff Becker said in a statement.
"Overall compliance with our voluntary code was still very strong, as Camy noted in its own report, indicating that 86% of the radio placements in the markets studied already met the 70% standard in our Code. This underscores the effectiveness of self-regulation and our members’ ongoing commitment to responsible advertising."
posted at 4:21 PM
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