ABSTRACT
For media representations of smoking and drinking and advertisements for alcohol and tobacco products to affect consumer behavior to the point that adverse social, economic, and health consequences occur, two mechanisms are necessary: (1) a means whereby messages carried in the media are observed, processed, and converted into behavior by the viewer; and (2) a mechanism to explain how the incremental consumption attributable, at least in part, to media exposure results in adverse outcomes in aggregate and on an individual basis. In short, there must be theories to explain how media influence behavior, and next how the behavior attributable to media effects eventuates in adverse societal outcomes.
