Alcohol Advertising: Evidence from Social Science

Abstract

Alcohol advertising — isn't it a job of simple persuasion? As a social science researcher who has spent more than half a dozen years investigating alcohol advertising — among other forms of media content — I am often asked by lay persons to gauge the ‘effects’ of such advertising. My first inclination is to respond that its effects are likely to be the same as those of any other mass mediated message. After all, the goal of science is to develop and apply broad theories which neatly and parsimoniously encapsulate large amounts of information, and therefore it is somewhat odd to single out alcohol advertising as a ‘peculiar’ type of communication.