Liquor radio ads reach teens despite a ban, agency says

ATLANTA — About half of the alcohol advertising on radio is aired during youth-oriented programs, according to a new study that suggests beer and liquor companies are not abiding by a self-imposed ban on advertising to teens.

The report was released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It is the first to assess alcohol radio advertising since 2003, when the alcohol industry vowed to no longer run ads on radio programs in which 30 percent or more of the audience is under 21.

"Kids in the United States are exposed to a heck of a lot of alcohol advertising, and it impacts what they drink and how much they drink," said Dr. Tim Naimi, a CDC epidemiologist who worked on the study with researchers from Georgetown University's Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth.

Industry officials criticized the report. They noted the figures were collected in summer 2004, less than a year after the industry's code was instituted, and said that some long-standing advertising contracts had not yet expired.

"Brewers work to comply with the code every day," Jeff Becker, president of the Beer Institute, said in a statement.

The researchers monitored radio advertising in 104 markets, focusing on the 25 brands of alcoholic beverages with heaviest radio spending. They used Arbitron Ratings information to check the demographics of the audiences listening to various programs.

Twenty-one is the drinking age in all U.S. states.

About 15 percent of the U.S. population is in the 12-to-20 age bracket, but the percentage varies from market to market. A radio program was considered to be "youth-oriented" if the youth audience was larger than the percentage of youth in that market's population.

The researchers counted 67,404 beer, wine and liquor spots and said 32,800 of them — or 49 percent — were aired on youth-oriented programs.

Alternative rock and hip-hop were among the program formats that had the largest percentage of alcohol advertising. Alternative rock stations accounted for about one-quarter of youth exposure to alcohol ads in the sample, said David Jernigan, executive director of the Georgetown Center.

Researchers also looked at advertising on programs with audiences in which more than 30 percent were in the 12-to-20 age bracket. The 30 percent threshold was studied because in 2003 the Beer Institute and Distilled Spirits Council joined the Wine Institute in adopting a 30 percent threshold for radio advertising placement.