Youth identity formation and contemporary alcohol marketing

Abstract Purpose – Social marketing initiatives designed to address the UK’s culture of unhealthy levels of drinking among young adults have achieved inconclusive results to date. The paper aims to investigate the gap between young people’s perceptions of alcohol consumption and those of government agencies who seek to influence their behaviour set within a contextualist framework. Design/methodology/approach – The authors present empirical evidence from a major study that suggests that the emphasis of recent campaigns on individual responsibility may be unlikely to resonate with young drinkers. The research included a meaning-based and visual rhetoric analysis of 261 ads shown on TV, in magazines, on billboards and on the internet between 2005 and 2006. This was followed by 16 informal group discussions with 89 young adults in three locations. Findings – The research identified the importance of the social context of young people’s drinking. The research reveals how a moral position has been culturally constructed around positioning heavy drinking as an individual issue with less regard to other stakeholders and how the marketing agents function in this environment. Calls to individual responsibility in drinking are unlikely to succeed in the current marketing environment. Research limitations/implications – The qualitative research was limited to three geographical locations with young adults between the ages of 18 and 25. Practical implications – The authors explore implications for social marketing theory and for UK alcohol policy. In particular, the authors suggest that the social norms surrounding young people’s drinking need to be acknowledged and built into “sensible” social marketing campaigns. The authors suggest that shame, fear and guilt appeals should be replaced with more constructive methods of ensuring young people’s safety when they drink. Originality/value – From the theoretical perspective of contextualism, the paper brings together empirical research with young adults and a critical analysis of recent social marketing campaigns within the commercial context of a “culture of intoxication”. It provides both a critique of social marketing in a neo-liberal context and recognition of issues involved in excessive alcohol consumption. Keywords Alcoholic drinks, Social marketing, Public health, Youth, Individual behaviour, Paper type Research paper

2017

Report from Cancer Research UK, University of the West of England and University of Stirling which explores how young people engage with alcohol brands

London: Alcohol Education …, 2008

Health promotion international, 2014

There is growing evidence that young people own alcohol-branded merchandise (ABM), and that ownership influences their drinking intentions and behaviours. However, there is a paucity of research on parents' knowledge or attitudes in relation to ownership of ABM. Study 1 (n = 210) identified high levels of ownership of ABM and associations between ABM and drinking attitudes and behaviours. In Study 2, focus groups with Australian parents found that they were aware of ABM-and many had items of ABM in their home-but they had generally not engaged in consideration of the potential impact on their children. They clearly perceived ABM as advertising and, on reflection, acknowledged that this form of marketing may influence children's decisions about drinking. There is a need to raise parental awareness of the effects of ABM and to endeavour to reduce children's exposure to this influential form of alcohol marketing.

Addiction (Abingdon, England), 2014

To identify shared patterns of views in young people relating to the influence of industry-driven alcohol marketing (price, promotion, product and place of purchase/consumption) on their reported drinking behaviour. Q methodology harnessed qualitative and quantitative data to generate distinct clusters of opinions as follows: 39 opinion statements were derived from earlier in-depth qualitative interviews with 31 young people; by-person factor analysis was carried out on 28 participants' (six previous interviewees and 22 new recruits) rank orderings of these statements (most-to-least agreement); interpretation of the factor arrays was aided by 10-15-minute debriefing interviews held immediately following each Q-sort. Northeast England Young people aged 14-17 years purposively recruited from high schools, higher education colleges, youth centres and youth offending teams. Centroid factor extraction and varimax rotation of factors generated three distinct accounts: factor one (&#39...

AIMS -The article discusses and compares two European studies that investigate young recipients of commercial messages on alcohol. The studies spring out of very different science philosophical paradigms. Their comparison therefore brings certain ontological, epistemological and methodological questions to a head. DATA AND METHODS -A large amount of existing research and theorizing has been reviewed in order to frame the studies concerning the following aspects: their goals (genesis, purposes etc.); their view on the nature of reality (ontology); their view on how knowledge is created and expanded (epistemology) and, their view on the role of values in research and theory building (axiology). RESULTS -It is suggested that although the studies work in separate paradigms and are concerned with different phenomena, they could gain from a consolidation for complementary purposes. CONCLUSIONS -The task of studying alcohol marketing audiences puts the alcohol research field's methodological capacities to the test. The field needs more interactive collaboration between different research traditions in order to produce credible research in this area.

European Journal of Marketing, 2018

Purpose This article seeks to understand how young people manage the dramaturgical dilemmas related to drinking alcohol and performing multiple identities. Design/ methodology/ approach Drawing on qualitative data collected with 16-18 year olds, the authors adopt Goffman's dramaturgical perspective to examine youth alcohol consumption in relation to multiple identities. Findings Young people continuously and skillfully juggle multiple identities across multiple contexts, where identities overflow, and audiences and interactions overlap. Techniques of audience segregation, mystification and misrepresentation, and justification are used to perform and manage multiple identities in a risky health behaviour context. The approach may facilitate some over-and underclaiming. Future studies could observe young people's performances of self across multiple contexts, paying particular attention to how alcohol features in these performances. Social implications Social marketing campaigns should demonstrate an understanding of how alcohol relates to the contexts of youth lives beyond the 'night out', and engage more directly with young peoples' navigation between different identities, contexts and audiences. Campaigns could tap into the secretive nature of youth alcohol consumption and discourage youth from prioritising audience segregation and mystification above their own safety. Originality/ value Extant work has argued that consumers find multiplicity unmanageable or manage multiple identities through internal dialogue. Instead, this paper demonstrates how young people manage multiple identities through interaction and performance. Our study challenges the neat compartmentalisation of identities identified in prior literature, and Goffman's clear-cut division of performances into front and back stage.

2010

This report explores young adults' decisionmaking around alcohol against a cultural backdrop of historically high levels of consumption, affordability and availability in the UK. When drinking with their peers, paying more for alcohol is likely to reduce the amount consumed per drinking occasion for young adults. The cost of alcohol represents a more effective brake on consumption than considerations about health. The peer-based pursuit of drunkenness has become an established part of the experience of young adulthood in the UK. Alcohol has found a monopoly position in facilitating group belonging, and forging and maintaining friendship groups in young adulthood. This is attributed to: • the special nature of young adulthood within the life-course; • the absence of group bonding opportunities in other areas of life; and • the success of alcohol markets in fi lling the void. An awareness of the risks of alcohol marketing strategies further shaping the normalised experience of young adulthood should be borne in mind. In particular, the separation of young adults' drinking experiences from those of other (older) adults should be addressed. Allowing more diverse drinking spaces, with diverse alcohol standards evident, may apply informal brakes on consumption. This evidence suggests that the example set in parental homes is important to establishing diverse understandings of appropriate consumption. Moderate drinking in this sphere provides an alternative view of alcohol, in contrast to the excessive consumption promoted by the commercial alcohol offer targeting young adults. • When compared with other consumer goods, alcohol is now cheaper than ever before. • Increasing complexity in the demographic trends around alcohol consumption shows a changing picture of how subgroups of the population drink. For example: o men have recently moderated their alcohol consumption; o women's drinking continues to increase ; o the young are drinking less than older age groups but, even within younger groups, some drink more than others; a case of 'more alcohol down fewer throats' . Our aim was to discover how young adults make decisions about when, where, with whom and -cruciallyhow much and how often alcohol is consumed. The following questions guided the data collection. • How have changes in wider cultural patterns of alcohol consumption become integrated in peer group values of young adults? • What is the role of social networks in young people's decision-making around alcohol consumption? • What role does price and availability of alcohol play in young people's decision-making? • Are there differences between social networks in terms of decision-making criteria and infl uences? Do they override other infl uences such as price and availability or individual values? • What potential policy and practice implications follow from the fi ndings? Below is a summary of the methods used within this study, which are described in more depth in the Appendix to this report. Methods included in-depth interviews, drink diaries, social network mapping and focus groups. The sample of 35 individuals aged between 18 and 25 years captured different pathways

2009

Alcohol consumption is often linked to a broad range of social and health problems, yet alcohol also plays a fundamental role in social bonding between people. This paper considers the potential of social marketing to contribute to alcohol consumption reduction and reframe social norms that encourage ‘problem’ drinking. Based on qualitative research with a variety of Scottish drinkers, the paper emphasises how and why a better understanding of the culturally bound meanings of alcohol (e.g. social identity, self-concept) are of crucial importance to inform any social marketing approach to reframing excessive drinking

Young Consumers: Insight and …, 2009

Purpose -This paper aims to investigate relationships between reported alcohol consumption and exposure to alcohol advertising. Design/methodology/approach -A survey of young people (17-21 years) was carried out in which they were questioned about their alcohol consumption habits, types of alcohol they consume, exposure to alcohol advertising, and a range of other factors linked to drinking (e.g., parental and peer groups alcohol-related behaviour and attitudes). General alcohol consumption was measured within three time-frames: own lifetime, past year and past month. Findings -The results showed no significant relationships between exposure to any type of alcohol advertising (cinema, magazine, TV) and general alcohol consumption. Exposure to televised advertising for alcopops and for cider in each case emerged as a significant predictor of consumption of each of those types of alcohol. While there was no evidence that alcohol advertising plays a significant role in shaping general alcohol consumption among young people, it does seem to play a part in driving consumption of certain types of alcoholic beverage. Research limitations/implications -Self-completion questionnaires were used and the sample was based in central east England. Practical implications -The results can inform current debates about the role of advertising in young people's drinking. Originality/value -A wider range of alcohol-related consumption and alcohol advertising exposure behaviours was examined in this study than in most other published surveys that have investigated relationships between these classes of variables.