Alcohol Recognition and Desire to Drink of Extended Alcohol Brand Logos

Alcohol advertising in disguise: Exposure to zero-alcohol products prompts adolescents to think of alcohol-Reaction time experimental study

BACKGROUND

Zero-alcohol drinks (<0.5 % alcohol by volume) appear and taste like alcoholic drinks; they may feature brands from alcoholic drinks ("brand extensions") or "new-to-world" brands. These drinks are not consistently included within many restrictions aimed at reducing adolescents' exposure to alcohol products and advertising. This online study examined whether adolescents implicitly categorise images of zero-alcohol drinks as alcoholic beverages.

METHODS

331 Australian adolescents aged 15-17 years participated in an online within-subjects reaction time experiment. Participants viewed 20 randomly-ordered images of alcohol, zero-alcohol, and soft drink products and were asked to indicate as quickly as possible whether these images made them think of alcohol, with both response time and agreement recorded. Generalised linear mixed effects models were used to examine differences in response time and agreement by drink type, adjusting for clustering of responses within participants, recent consumption, survey device (mobile/computer), and parental presence.

RESULTS

Most images of alcoholic (94.4 %), brand extension zero-alcohol (90.7 %), and "new-to-world" zero-alcohol (85.6 %) drinks prompted participants to think of alcohol, compared to 5.2 % of soft drinks. In the mixed effects model, compared to alcoholic drinks, participants on average responded 72 ms slower to brand extension zero-alcohol drinks and 215 ms slower to "new-to-world" brand zero-alcohol drinks.

CONCLUSIONS

The combination of high levels of agreement and slower reaction times suggest that adolescents categorise zero-alcohol drinks as non-typical alcoholic drinks, rather than soft drinks. Thus, exposure to zero-alcohol drinks had similar effects to exposure to alcoholic drinks. Urgent regulatory action is required to ensure that restrictions on alcohol advertising and availability to minors extend to zero-alcohol drinks.

The impacts of alcohol marketing and advertising, and the alcohol industry's views on marketing regulations: Systematic reviews of systematic reviews

ISSUES

Advertising and marketing affect alcohol use; however, no single systematic review has covered all aspects of how they affect alcohol use, and how the alcohol industry views alcohol marketing restrictions.

APPROACH

Two systematic reviews of reviews were performed according to the Preferred Reporting Items on 2 February 2023. Results were analysed using a narrative synthesis approach.

KEY FINDINGS

Twenty-three reviews were included in the systematic reviews. The first systematic review examined youth and adolescents (11 reviews), digital or internet marketing (3 reviews), alcohol marketing's impact on cognition (3 reviews), and alcohol marketing and policy options (2 reviews). The second systematic review focused on alcohol industry (i.e., importers, producers, distributors, retailers and advertising firms) response to advertising restrictions (four reviews). The reviews indicated that there is evidence that alcohol marketing (including digital marketing) is associated with increased intentions to drink, levels of consumption and harmful drinking among youth and young adults. Studies on cognition indicate that advertisements focusing on appealing contexts and outcomes may be more readily accepted by adolescents, and may be less easily extinguished in this population. The review of the alcohol industry found a strong desire to self-regulate alcohol advertising.

IMPLICATIONS

We found alcohol advertising and marketing is associated with increased drinking intentions, consumption and harmful drinking. Thus, policies which restrict advertising may be an effective way to reduce alcohol use.

CONCLUSION

More research is needed to assess all aspects of the observed associations, especially as to how marketing policies impact women and people with alcohol dependence.

"They start on the zero-alcohol and they wanna try the real thing": Parents' views on zero-alcohol beverages and their use by adolescents

OBJECTIVE

Zero-alcohol beverages containing 0.0-0.5% alcohol by volume may offer public health benefits if individuals use them to substitute for alcohol-containing products, thereby reducing alcohol use. There are, however, concerns that zero-alcohol beverages may encourage adolescents' earlier interest in alcohol and increase exposure to alcohol company branding. As this poses a challenge for parents, we studied parents' views on zero-alcohol beverages and their provision to adolescents.

METHODS

We interviewed n=38 parents of 12-17-year-olds and used reflexive thematic analysis to interpret interview data.

RESULTS

Parents considered zero-alcohol beverages to be 'adult beverages' that potentially supported reduced adult drinking but were unnecessary for adolescents. Parents were concerned that adolescent zero-alcohol beverage use could normalise alcohol consumption and be a precursor to alcohol initiation. There was a potential conflict between moderate provision in 'appropriate' contexts, and potential benefits, which were each supported by some parents. Uncertainty on health qualities was also reported.

CONCLUSIONS

Parents reported conflicting and cautious views on zero-alcohol beverage provision to adolescents.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PUBLIC HEALTH

As evidence on the impacts of zero-alcohol beverage availability develops, parent-targeted messages highlighting the potential risk of normalisation of alcohol use for young people could be developed, in conjunction with broader policy responses.