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Young adults in the United States are bombarded with exposure to alcohol in many different forms, particularly in popular culture. Alcohol consumption is shown on many popular television shows. Alcohol consumption is also shown in many popular movies. Many movies and television shows that particularly display and promote underage drinking, such as Superbad and American Pie, and Gossip Girl and That 70’s Show. Young adults are also exposed to more and more alcohol advertisements on television, and in magazines. Also, many alcohol ads are displayed in places that have frequent young adult traffic, such as social media sites like Twitter. Another main source of exposure of young adults to alcohol is in popular music. Young adults consume about 2.5 hours of popular music a day, and much of the music they consume contains references to specific brands of alcohol.

It has been shown that there is a link between underage alcohol consumption and the exposure to alcohol that young adults are subject to. This overexposure to content that includes and references alcohol is having a negative effect on the health and wellbeing of young adults. Young adults are more like to being drinking, or drink at higher levels if they have already started drinking, when they are exposed to alcohol consumption and advertisements. 

Click here to read more about how references to specific brands of alcohol in popular music affects the alcohol consumption of young adults. 

Click here to read more about how young adults are being exposed to more alcohol advertisements on television than adults are.   

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The first lines of this song are, "teen drinking is very bad. yo i got a fake ID though." The second part of that statement counteract the first part. Instead of sending a message that underage drinking is wrong, it actually promotes it. It sends a message that having a fake ID to acquire alcohol and to get into clubs is the cool thing to do, and that everybody is doing it, so you should too. Songs like these promote unhealthy behaviors for teens. 

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Alcohol Consumption on Reality TV

Alcohol consumption is a major aspect of many television shows.  However, not all television shows depict drinking realistically. In many cases over consumption of alcohol plays a main role in the television show. On reality television shows it is all about excessive drinking. A prime example here is Jersey Shore. On every episode the people drink to the point of inebriation, and viewers are entertained by their drunken antics. The drinking patterns exhibited on Jersey Shore are nothing like the patterns of alcohol consumption we see in the real world. In the real world there are people who regularly drink, and regularly overdrink, but they do not do so in the manner that they do on Jersey Shore. People who have to work everyday to support themselves do not have the time, energy, or money to drink the way they do on Jersey Shore, it is not responsible alcohol consumption. 

Click here to read more about drinking on television shows. 

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Reality TV: Here, logically, it's all about overdrinking: The more you get ridiculous people hammered, the more they're apt to do ridiculous things on-camera. Right now, Jersey Shore is the industry leader. Ron Ron juice for the pregame, Red Bull and vodka at the club, whatever's left over for the after-party, and the fistfights, ill-advised hookups, and generally hilarious boorish behavior comes flowing.

Amos Barshad, vulture.com

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Is it acceptable for alcohol companies to create ads targeting underage drinkers?

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Alcohol advertisers using social media to target teens.Teens don’t have to buy magazines or watch tv to see ads commending the supposed glamor of drinking. Teens are being overexposed to ads that send the message that drinking is cool and glamorous, and it is causing them to engage in underage drinking. Check it out in the link above. 

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“Big Alcohol in big sports is big business and very harmful to society, its youth, public health and safety. While Big Alcohol’s ‘game plan’ includes patent lies that there is no evidence that exposure to alcohol ads encourages underage consumption or harmful over-consumption among adults, the opposite is actually true.”

Bruce Lee Livingston, Alcohol Justice’s Executive Director and CEO

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There's more than a bit of underage boozing in the 2007 film "Superbad". Films like these promote the idea of underage alcohol consumption without showing the negative consequences of this illegal action. It enforces the idea that underage drinking is cool and fun. But it fails to show the reality of the situation - that underage drinking is illegal and there are sever consequences if you are caught. Teens watching movies like this one only get half of the story. 

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Young people are exposed to many types of alcohol advertising in spaces that mainly attract their age. This high exposure impacts the decisions and behaviors young people make when it comes to underage drinking. The advertisements are targeted at the wrong age groups. And they are having negative effects on the health and wellbeing of young adults. 

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This music video puts it in our heads that it is okay to blame bad behavior on excessive drinking. It tells us that it is excusable to make bad decisions when drinking. It tells us that we should not be held accountable for our actions when we are under the influence, but we most definitely should be. It is sending a bad message to everyone about decision making when under the influence. 

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This link features a report on how youths being exposed to more and more alcohol ads has a negative effect on their health. Young adults and teens are being overexposed to alcohol ads which is causing them to start drinking prematurely and causing young adults that already drink to drink at higher levels. This puts young adults more at risk for health problems.