There’s a new way to measure how much exposure young adults are getting to alcohol. A Medical News Today report reveals a new online tool from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health to help officials determine how much radio advertising is getting through to pre-teens and teens. Alcohol marketing is supposed to be targeted to areas where a majority of the population is of legal drinking age. This tool has helped to identify that this is not necessarily the case and that there are several violators who are marketing to the younger audiences. The concern is due to the high percentage of twelve to twenty-year-olds who abuse alcohol. Officials say this population is more likely to partake in alcohol at a younger age and tend to over indulge on a regular basis. Alcohol is the contributing factor in the deaths of almost five thousand young adults every year. Critics of marketing to youth say that the more exposure the younger age group receives, then the more likely they will be to drink. The statistics indicate that there is already a problem and the ads only contribute to the epidemic. Radio advertising is under scrutiny because it still remains so popular with young adults. In a time where the internet is perceived to be where more youngsters turn their attention, radio is still pulling its own with this population. Marketers are all about increasing revenues for their companies, but there seems to be a bit of social responsibility necessary in this case. If statistics back up that teens listen to the radio and act upon the advertisements, potentially resulting in dangerous alcohol use, then they should change their focus. There are enough adults who are of legal age to consume their product so there is no need to prey on the underage group, thus contributing to an already deadly problem.
