In this podcast link below, an author named Charles Parry discuses how we can minimize the harmful effects of alcohol by banning alcohol promotion and advertising. Specifically, he talks about the Alcohol and Drug Abuse Research unit's findings and implications. Listen here.


http://www.cochrane.org/podcasts/10.1002/14651858.CD010704.pub2

This advertisement by Heineken is clearly targeted towards children. How much more obvious can it get? Heineken put a video game remote between two bottles of beer. They are clearly trying to advertise to our youth by appealing to their emotions with something many children love: video games. 

The Center on Alcohol Marketing & Youth, based at Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins, focuses on the correlation between advertising alcohol and the impact alcohol has on children in today's society.

In a section called "Alcohol Advertising on Sports Television", camy.com reports "Children and teens are major fans of sports. A study co-sponsored by ESPN found that in 2001, 93% of youth ages eight to 17 watched, listened to or read about sports via television, radio, newspapers, books, the Internet, video games and the movies. Television is the medium used most for sports by the majority of these youth (93% of boys, 81% of girls).¹ A Harris Youth Sports Report in 1999 found that 29% of kids say they are diehard fans of National Basketball Association (NBA) games, compared with only 14% of adults.² And according to the NFL's senior communications director, "Among our most avid fans, 69% said they were fans of the NFL by the time they were 12."³ Youth ages 12 to 15 prefer to get their sports news from television sports news shows, choosing them over the Internet, family, magazines, newspapers or radio.⁴
The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth's own research has demonstrated that overall alcohol advertising on televised sports programming in 2003 was more likely to be seen by adults than youth: youth make up 13.3% of the national television viewing population but on average only 9.1% of the audience for televised sports with alcohol advertising.⁵ In most cases the youth share of the audience for this advertising was lower than the proportion of youth in the television viewing population. However, for 16.5% of alcohol ad placements on televised sports ($47.1 million worth of advertising spending), the youth share of the audience was higher than the proportion of youth in the overall television viewing population."

Here is a chart that shows the correlation between annual expenditure on alcohol and weekly alcohol consumption of 11-15 year olds in the United Kingdom.

As you can see, the alcohol intake per week increases as the amount spent on alcohol advertising increases. It's crazy to think 11-15 year olds even drink. Advertisers can lessen the amount they consume by stopping the advertising. However, they never will. The only thing they care about is making millions.

When it comes to advertising, it's simple. Sex sells. That has been the motto for years and years. It doesn't matter what you are trying to sell. If you put sex appeal in your advertisement, chances are it will get attention. Here are some examples.

In this picture above, Skyy uses two girls to show off their new alcohol. Skyy's known for their "sexy" ads. This isn't the first time they have used sex appeal in an advertisement,

Heineken's also known for using sex appeal in their advertisements. In this picture, they use a man and a woman to gain attention. Advertisers deny complaints they receive about appealing to young children. However, their advertisements seek to normalize alcohol. They want to make it seem like alcohol isn't a big deal. By doing this, they attract a whole new generation of children,