In this report, I have chosen to research the effects of alcohol advertising on young people below the drinking age of 18 years-old in the UK. I will be considering how advertising, particularly that which exists in supermarkets and shops and in televised advertisement breaks, can affect the mindset and views of young people towards alcohol and whether being exposed to advertisements encourages underage drinking. I have chosen to research this topic because it is something I believe to be interesting as the shortening of childhood has been a highly debated topic in the past few decades, and I can personally connect with this topic and have had experiences with the issue of underage drinking.
It is noticeable in statistics supplied by Drink
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They continue in their article to state that adolescents are more impressionable, at such an age where they are vulnerable and constantly shaping their views and opinions. This can be where the media and advertising steps in, as exposure to television, newspapers and magazines and now social media, it is increasingly difficult to regulate what young people interact with and whether it is having a profound effect on their views (Collins et al, 2007: 527). When forming my research question through my literature review, I based my formulation on researchers such as Waiters et al (2001: 696) who conducted research on 97 students aged 9-15 about their views on a select number of alcohol advertisements. The results they found were that the youths often based their interest in such advertisements on the quality of the product and the people in the advertisement. If they are sexually attractive people, this then implies to young people that attractive young adults consume the product for ‘personal rewards’ (Waiters et al, 2001: