ABSTRACT
The impact of mass media, especially television, on social problems in the United States has been debated for almost three decades. The intensity of the debates has, unfortunately, been little informed by scientific studies of even the content of alcohol beverage advertising, let alone findings on the impact of advertising. Unfortunately, the concern of scholars and policy-makers with the impact of advertising on alcohol use and misuse has failed to generate a research framework which distinguishes clearly among the issues involved. In addition, global policy recommendations are often linked to desired outcomes with little consideration of the dynamics of the process involved. The present research, focusing on the effects of exposure to television alcohol beverage advertising, reports initial baseline results from a large-scale, systematic survey of some 1,000 teenagers and their families of orientation. Research on the specific topic of alcohol beverage advertising and alcohol use is virtually non-existent at the individual level.
