Two of the most important behaviors affecting youth are alcohol use and aggression. Advertisements that promote alcohol consumption and display aggressive images and words may influence attitudes and behaviors of youth. While there is considerable research on these kinds of advertisements in various media channels, there is limited research describing such advertising within public transit systems. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to describe and prevalence and characteristics of advertisements about alcohol and with violent content on the platform walls of the New York City subway system. Methods: A cross-sectional design with direct observations was used to document all advertisements in four boroughs: Bronx, Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Queens. Subway stations with and without advertising were identified and selected characteristics of advertisements about alcohol and with violent content were described. The presence of advertisements was examined based on racial/ethnic and income characteristics of station location using logistic regression. Results: Of 472 subway stations observed, 143 contained 8,737 advertisements, including duplicates. Of the 143 stations with any type of advertisements, 76 (53.1%) displayed one or more alcohol advertisements while over 95% included one or more advertisements with violent content (136 of 143). Of the 8,737 advertisements observed, 129 (1.5%) were for alcohol (including three public service messages) and 1,154 (13.2%) had violent content. Almost two-thirds of the 129 advertisements about alcohol were for beer. There were 144 advertisements that pictured guns. Not one public service announcement for violence prevention was observed. Examination of the presence of advertisements based on racial/ethnic and income characteristics of station location (n = 454 with complete data) showed no differences for advertisements with violent content, but greater odds of alcohol advertisements being present in locations with a higher percentage of Black population. Considerable variability existed between neighborhoods within each borough. Conclusions: Almost 9,000 advertisements were documented in this study. Despite the low number of advertisements about alcohol, one or more such advertisements was present in over one-half of the stations with advertising. Advertisements with violent content were pervasive. Recommendations focus on how public transit spaces can be used more productively to help cultivate caring communities.

Alcohol related harm is one of the major public health and societal concerns in the UK. Per capita alcohol consumption has risen considerably over the last twenty years and binge drinking has increased. Alcohol related harms including crime and social disorder, lost productivity, family breakdown and health harms such as rising incidence of liver disease and increases in alcohol related hospital admissions, are considerable. Particular concern has focused upon alcohol and young people, with levels of youth binge drinking in the UK among the highest in Europe and alcohol related hospital admissions of young people increasing. Furthermore, youth drinking behaviours are strong predictors of alcohol dependence in later life and contribute to long term health harms. As a result there has been an increased focus on factors that may potentially influence youth drinking behaviours including alcohol marketing. The evidence base on the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking has developed since the topic was first examined in the early 1980s. Recent systematic reviews have suggested a causal link between alcohol marketing and youth drinking behaviour. However gaps in the evidence base remain. The research project presented in this PhD contains six publications which aim to address these gaps, being the first longitudinal consumer study on the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking in the UK. The study used a critical social marketing framework to assess the cumulative impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking, with findings intended to help upstream social marketing efforts, inform policy and regulation and targeted behaviour change interventions. The project examined the impact of alcohol marketing across a comprehensive range of communications channels including less well researched areas such as new media and sponsorship. The project involved three discrete stages of research. First, a brand website and press audit of contemporary alcohol marketing communications in the UK was conducted, supplemented by interviews with key informants from the marketing profession and regulatory bodies. Second, qualitative focus group research was conducted with young people to explore the role and meaning of alcohol in their lives and their attitudes towards alcohol marketing. Third, a two wave cohort study design featuring a questionnaire survey was conducted to assess the impact of alcohol marketing on youth drinking. The survey consisted of a two part interviewer administered and self completion questionnaire in home with 920 second year school pupils at baseline, and follow up of a cohort of 552 in fourth year. The audit revealed that alcohol marketing is ubiquitous in the UK with most brands having a dedicated website featuring sophisticated content that appeals to youth including music, sport and video games. The press audit found that alcopop brands concentrated advertising in youth magazines, and that supermarket advertising of alcohol was considerable in the printed press. Focus group research revealed a sophisticated level of awareness of and involvement in alcohol marketing among respondents across several channels. Marketing activities often featuring content with youth appeal seemed to influence young people’s well developed brand attitudes. Cross sectional regression analysis found significant associations between awareness of, and involvement with alcohol marketing and drinking status and future drinking intentions. Bivariate and multi-variate longitudinal analysis indicated that alcohol marketing was associated with youth drinking behaviour, including initiation of drinking, and increased frequency of drinking between wave one and wave two. The implications of these findings for theory, practice and public policy are discussed.

M. Tech. Marketing / The primary objective of this study was to investigate the role that advertising plays in alcoholic beverage consumption patterns of the youth of Tshwane. Several secondary research objectives were set which include: examining the overall alcoholic beverage consumption of young people, the alcoholic beverage types and brands consumed, exposure to alcoholic beverage brand advertising, exposure to media in which alcoholic beverages are advertised, differences between males and females with regards to their consumption of alcoholic beverages as well as the alcoholic beverage types they consume, the relationship between age and alcoholic beverage consumption, income and alcoholic beverage consumption and other factors that can influence young people to consume alcoholic beverages.

Within the past twenty years, an abundant amount of research has been done on how alcohol advertising and alcohol portrayals affect society. The most common studies have examined the influence alcohol advertising and alcohol portrayals have or do not have on adolescents, the relationship between alcohol content and the level of consumption, and how adults and under-age drinkers perceive drinking incidents.The present study is a content analysis examining how four networks- ABC, CBS, FOX, and NBC vary in the amount of alcohol incidents shown in prime-time programming.The two-week study began on Sunday, May 20, 2001 and ended on Saturday, June 2, 2001 from 8 to 11 p.m. each evening. Alcohol incidents were classified as either a physical or verbal reference, as well as an appearance. Physical references were further categorized as the type of theme represented, the venue of the incident, and the type of drink involved.The findings suggest that the FOX and NBC networks air programs that present more alcohol incidents and themes of socialization than ABC and CBS. Therefore the researcher concludes that because of the target audience age is younger for FOX and NBC, these networks are more inclined to show more alcohol incidents and socialization themes versus the ABC and CBS networks, which have an older target viewing audience. / Department of Journalism

This research study aimed to provide the South African beer industry and their advertising representative with insights into 18-28-year-olds’ perceptions of the communicated messaged in beer advertisements. This included the use of social and cultural references to attract their attention and the suggestions made by the advertisements about the consumption of beer in certain contexts. This research study aimed to determine the selected sample’s (NMMU students) perceptions of four South African Breweries beer brands, namely Castle Lager, Castle Lite, Carling Black Label and Hansa Pilsener, in terms of their use of references to social and cultural identity of males and females in South Africa within their television advertisements. The survey questionnaire helped determine what the selected sample’s perceptions were of each advertisement, and whether they fully understood the desired communicated message. It also helped to understand whether each advertisement captured their attention. A semiotic analysis of each advertisement was conducted to deconstruct the advertisements and to determine if they do contain elements of social and cultural identity in an attempt to sell products to their target audiences, or to affect the perceptions of the brand and drinking beer in general. This was achieved by examining the signs and imagery in each advertisement, looking specifically at the representamen, interpretant and object using Pierce’s model of a sign. / Hierdie navorsingstudie is daarop gemik om die Suid-Afrikaanse bierbedryf en sy adverteerders ‘n beter begrip te gee van verbruikers tussen die ouderdomme van 18-28, se waarnemings van die boodskappe in bieradvertensies. Dit sluit in die gebruik van sosiale en kulturele verwysings, wat veronderstel is om die verbruikers se aandag te trek, asook die suggesties wat deur die advertensies gemaak word met betrekking tot die verbruik van bier in ‘n bepaalde konteks. Die studie moes ook die gekose monster (“selected sample”), nl. die NMMU-student se persepsies bepaal van vier handelsname van die South African Breweries, naamlik Castle Lager, Castle Lite, Carling Black Label en Hansa Pilsener, en in watter mate daar in bieradvertensies oor die televisie verwys word na die sosiale en kulturele identiteit van Suid-Afrikaanse mans en vroue. Die meningspeiling het die groep se waarnemings van elke advertensie, asook of die boodskap wat gekommunikeer is ten volle verstaan word, ondersoek. Die vraelys kon ook vasstel of die advertensies hulle aandag getrek het. ‘n Semiotiese ontleding van elke advertensie is gedoen, om die advertensies te dekodeer en sodoende vas te stel of die adverteerders elemente van sosiale en kulturele identiteit gebruik het om hul produkte aan die teikenmarkte te verkoop, of om die idees rondom die handelsnaam en bier oor die algemeen te beïnvloed. Aan die hand van Peirce se semiotiese model is die tekens en beelde in elke advertensie bestudeer.

Thesis (MBA)--Stellenbosch University, 2011. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: Objective: The purpose of the present study is to empirically examine the relationship between brand-level alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption in South Africa. The effect that price has on alcohol consumption is also investigated in the analysis. Method: Using secondary quantitative time series data that include observations of brand-level sales volume, segment volume, brand-level market share, brand-level retail selling price (RSP) and brand-level advertising expenditure (spanning a 32 month period), statistical techniques such as tests for stationarity and co-integration were conducted to assess the association between the various constructs. Results: It was found that between January 2007 and August 2009, a period that included an economic downturn, own-brand advertising had little or no effect on brand-level sales volume (or consumption), segment sales volume and brand level market share. Conversely, price had a significant effect on sales volume, explaining between 48% and 56% of the variation in sales volume at brand-level and between 21% and 31% of the variation in brand-level market share. Conclusion: The results suggest that brand-level advertising has no significant immediate effect on consumption levels in the South African liquor industry, while the price of alcoholic beverages does have a significant immediate effect.

One aspect of the role of advertising in the process of maintaining and reinforcing or challenging the socially constructed worlds of maleness and femaleness, and especially the portrayal of the "woman's place," was explored in this study.

Context: There are two ways that digital media may influence alcohol use. The first is commercial alcohol marketing. The second is user-created alcohol promotion, defined as content distributed through new media that promotes consumption, but independent of commercial marketing. This thesis explores how both types of content promote alcohol, what association there is between exposure and alcohol-related attitudes and behaviour, and the differences between marketing and user-created promotion. Method: A mixed method design was employed, divided into two studies. The first was a content analysis of the design features, topical references, and messages suggested about alcohol in digital marketing and user-created promotion on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. The second was a cross-sectional survey with young adults (n = 405). This measured awareness of, and participation with, digital marketing and user-created promotion, and the association with consumption, higher-risk drinking, brand recall, expectancies, and drinking motives. Results: The content analysis found that digital marketing had personalised designs which contained subtle and positive messages about consumption, whereas user-created promotion had simpler designs, displayed little ethical practice, and contained overt messages about higher-risk drinking. The cross-sectional survey found that young adults were aware of, and participating with, both digital marketing and user-created promotion, with exposure greater for the latter. Exposure to both types of content was positively associated with alcohol use, higher-risk consumption, and drinking intentions. User-created promotion had a stronger association with all outcomes than marketing. The association between exposure and consumption, for both types of content, was mediated through drinking motives and expectancies. Conclusion: Young adults are aware of, and participating with, a range of digital marketing and user-created promotion. That such exposure is associated with alcohol-related attitudes and behaviour highlights the potential of new media to influence alcohol consumption. Further research is required to better understand young people’s experience with digital media and the challenges of addressing online health risk messages.

Thesis (MComm)--Stellenbosch University, 2008. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The tobacco industry of South Africa has fallen under strict legislation and control measures from the South African government since the passing of the initial Tobacco Products Control Act, 1993. Further amendments have been made to the initial act, namely Tobacco Products Control Amendment Act, 1999 and the proposed Tobacco Products Control Amendment Bill, 2004. This assignment emerges against the backdrop of the alcoholic beverage industry coming under similar scrutiny to that of the tobacco industry from government legislation and control measures The main objective of this assignment was to discover the similarities, if any, between the tobacco industry and the alcoholic beverage industry of South Africa, specifically with regard to their advertising practices before legislation. The purpose of this assignment is to discover whether or not the alcoholic beverage industry can learn from the example of the tobacco industry in order to maintain its self-regulation, rather than to fall under the control of State regulation and legislation. The literature and empirical study sought to achieve the following four objectives: 1.) To gain a thorough understanding of the tobacco legislation on a global scale; 2.) To analyse the control measures and legislation of tobacco in a South African context; 3.) To identify any similarities between the tobacco industry and alcoholic beverage industry of South Africa and 4.) To identify means in which the alcoholic beverage industry can work with the State in order to maintain the self-regulation of its industry. Findings indicate that similarities arise when comparing tobacco and alcohol, as both of them have addictive qualities, are often used from a very young age and both have laws prohibiting sale to minors. The success gained in South Africa with regard to anti-tobacco initiatives and government legislation since the introduction of the first Tobacco Act in 1993, has led to certain members of society feeling that similar, if not the same, strict strategies and / or legislative measures should be used to address the public health problems relating to alcohol. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: Die Suid-Afrikaanse tabaknywerheid val onder streng wetgewing en beheermaatreëls deur die Suid-Afrikaanse regering sedert die aanvanklike Wet op die Beheer van Tabakprodukte, 1993 aanvaar is. Verdere wysigings op die aanvanklike wet is aanvaar, naamlik die Wysigingswet op die Beheer van Tabakprodukte, 1999 en die voorgestelde Wysigingswetsontwerp op die Beheer van Tabakprodukte, 2004. Hierdie werk spruit voort teen die agtergrond van die alkoholdranknywerheid wat onder 'n soortgelyke soeklig geplaas is as die tabaknywerheid by wyse van regeringswetgewing en beheermaatreëls. Die hoofoogmerk van hierdie werk was om die ooreenkomste, indien enige, vas te stel tussen die tabaknywerheid en die alkoholdranknywerheid van Suid-Afrika, spesifiek met betrekking tot hul adverteringspraktyke vóór wetgewing. Die doel van hierdie werk was om vas te stel of die alkoholdranknywerheid uit die voorbeeld van die tabaknywerheid kan leer aldan nie, met die oog op die voortsetting van sy selfbeheer, eerder as om onder die beheer van Staatsregulering en wetgewing te val. Die bronmateriaal en empiriese studie was daarop toegespits om die volgende vier doelwitte te bereik: 1.) Om 'n behoorlike begrip te verkry van tabakwetgewing op 'n globale skaal; 2.) Om die beheermaatreëls en wetgewing oor tabak in 'n Suid-Afrikaanse konteks te analiseer; 3.) Om enige ooreenkomste tussen die tabak- en die alkoholdranknywerheid in Suid-Afrika te identifiseer en 4.) Om wyses te identifiseer waardeur die alkoholdranknywerheid met die Staat kan saamwerk om die selfbeheer van die nywerheid te behou. Bevindinge dui aan dat ooreenkomste wel ontstaan wanneer tabak en alkohol met mekaar vergelyk word, veral omdat albei verslawende eienskappe bevat, dikwels deur persone vanaf 'n baie jong ouderdom gebruik word en dat wetgewing albei verbied om aan minderjariges verkoop te word. Die sukses wat in Suid-Afrika rakende anti-tabakinisiatiewe en wetgewing behaal is sedert die inwerkingstelling van die eerste Wet op die Beheer van Tabak in 1993 het daartoe gelei dat sekere lede van die gemeenskap van mening is dat soortgelyke, indien nie dieselfde nie, streng strategieë en/of wetgewende maatreëls aangewend behoort te word om die openbare gesondheidsprobleme rakende alkohol aan te spreek.