If you find yourself craving a beer next time you鈥檙e watching someone do the same on your TV, you won鈥檛 be alone.
Two studies suggest that people drink more when viewing drinking behaviour in films and advertisements. The results strengthen calls for tighter regulations on how and when alcohol is portrayed in movies and commercials.
鈥淎lthough we do not argue for banning alcohol portrayals in movies, it might be an idea to explicitly warn people, especially parents, that movies contain such scenes, and that these affect drinking directly,鈥� says lead researcher, of Radboud University in Nijmegen, the Netherlands.
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Engels found the effect in experiments where pairs of male students, aged 18 to 29, viewed films in a comfortable lounge with unrestricted access to a fridge containing bottles of beer.
The 80 volunteers were divided into groups, with half watching the alcohol-laden film and the rest watching the much milder . In each group, half were shown alcohol advertisements in the screen breaks and half watched neutral adverts.
Movie temptation
In American Pie, screen characters drank alcohol in 18 scenes, and alcoholic drinks were portrayed in a further 23. In 40 Days and 40 Nights, there are only three drinking scenes, and alcohol is portrayed 15 times.
When students viewed American Pie accompanied by alcohol advertisements, they drank twice as much 鈥� almost three bottles of beer each on average 鈥� as those watching the milder film accompanied by no alcohol advertising.
鈥淎ll in all, it can be concluded that for young adult males, the portrayal of alcohol on a TV screen might lead to increased alcohol consumption,鈥� say Engels and his colleagues in Alcohol & Alcoholism ().
鈥淭his paper is the first experimental study of its kind, and provides strong arguments that alcohol advertisements should be severely restricted,鈥� says Peter Anderson, a health consultant on alcohol to the and the . 鈥淎 good start would be bans on advertising on TV and in cinemas.鈥�
Drinking teens
In a separate paper in the same journal (), Anderson and his colleagues reviewed 13 studies of the impact of alcohol advertising on the consumption of alcohol on teenagers. They found that, in 12 of the studies, advertising prompted extra consumption.
鈥淲e conclude that alcohol advertising and promotion increases the likelihood that adolescents will start to use alcohol, and to drink more if they are already using alcohol,鈥� they write.
Vivienne Nathanson, head of science and ethics at the , agrees that the studies strongly justify tightening the regulations on portrayal of alcohol on TV and in films. 鈥淲e know that, despite the rules, alcohol is heavily promoted to young people,鈥� she says.
Even when advertisements comply with the existing rules, she says, they often portray drinkers as the sort of people that young adults aspire to be themselves. 鈥淚t鈥檚 making drinking acceptable, and the 鈥榯hing to do鈥�,鈥� says Nathanson.
鈥淚t鈥檚 something the film industry needs to think about, as we鈥檙e seeing increasing binge-drinking by young adults,鈥� says Nathanson.
鈥淚t鈥檚 key that we now know that seeing drinking on screen has an immediate impact on someone鈥檚 own drinking habits,鈥� says Nathanson. 鈥淚t would now be interesting to see if the effect leads to lifelong drinking habits.鈥�
Tighter rules?
The , which regulates advertising in the UK, and , which regulates the content of TV broadcasts, both said the existing rules for alcohol portrayal are strict.
In 2005, for example, the ASA tightened up its rules on advertising, outlawing adverts that link alcohol consumption to sexual or social success. 鈥淎lso, people must be shown handling alcohol responsibly,鈥� said a spokesman.
There are also restrictions on when alcohol ads can be shown, with a ban around programmes likely to be watched by large numbers of children.
As to the content of programmes, Ofcom says that 鈥渢he misuse of alcohol must not be featured in programmes made primarily for children unless there is strong editorial justification鈥�. Nor should programmes 鈥渃ondone, encourage or glamorise鈥� alcohol consumption before the 9pm watershed, or at times when children are likely to be listening, unless there is editorial justification.
But a spokeswoman for Ofcom said that it monitors all new evidence. 鈥淲e will have a look at the new studies, and see whether they impact on policy,鈥� she said.
