Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Your Thoughts on Advertising Alcohol

For my Capstone paper, I wanted to explore how people felt about alcohol advertisements. In my paper, I discuss the controversial topic : Should there be Stricter Regulations on Advertising Alcohol? I did a vast amount of research on the topic and interviewed people representing  both sides of the controversy. To end my paper, I wanted to hear from the public. I wanted to know what your thoughts, opinions, or ideas are about advertising alcohol.
Please watch the commercials below to experience the current alcohol advertising on television.

















The following are some questions to spark your interest:
 1) What is your overall impression of these advertisements?

2) Did they appeal to you?

3) What are your opinions about the content and tone of the ads?

4) What ages do you beleive these ads appeal to?

5) Do you feel minors would be influenced by these ads?

6) Would you change anything about these advertisments?




Please comment on this post with your opinions or questions. Thank you for your interest .

5 comments:

  1. This is such an interesting topic to investigate, Sara. A common argument I hear in favor of advertising alcohol is that we are all consumers, fully aware of the choices we make, and that we hold the power to avert our attention away from messages we wish not to receive. However, I am not too sure exactly what my stance is in the matter. My overall impression of these advertisements would be - sexist. sexist. sexist. The first few all have a pretty light hearted tone considering the heavy nature of the message they contain – drinking and driving. An owl and a man collecting keys from silly people at the door of his party do not really convey the message that if you drink and drive you or any innocent person can die. Furthermore, as a person who takes the time to recycle not just materials that I use, but materials of others (yes, if I see a water bottle in a trash can, I will place it in the correct bin), I am a bit upset by the “beer can house commercial.” When he says “enviro-what?” I mean come on, that is so environmentally insensitive. But, let’s face it, alcohol would not sell as well if I was in charge of advertising it. Not many people want to see a 30 second spot about how important it is to recycle your beer bottles after a party. Again, this is an interesting topic to research and I wish you luck!

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  2. I find the commercials entertaining, however, I agree with Ally on it not passing the message of drinking responsibly. Also, all the commercials are about partying and drinking...not everyone likes to do that, so I feel that they could of advertised to a larger audience. I believe that is is okay to advertise alcohol because people have a choice whether to engage in the advertisement or not. Advertisements may convince, but do not actually put the product into our hands. It is a controversial subject, but there are a lot of products people argue that shouldn't be advertised: Cigarettes, alcohol, women products, condoms...list goes on. It is not the product, but the way they advertise it and the content they include.

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  3. I agree with Ellie, not only are they not passing the message of drinking responsibly, but they are only advertising to one specific demographic. Drinking isn't always just for partying. I think that advertising alcohol is appropriate in itself, as long as it is for the appropriate demographic and demonstrated safely. Regardless of common sense, some people do take commercials and advertisements literally. I however do no believe in the advertisements of cigarettes. It's all about how advertisers go about things.

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  4. I just recently did a presentation on this same topic and found it disturbing how much alcohol advertising is geared towards the youth. The commercials and ads out there today only make it seem like you cannot have a good time without this beverage or it instills brand power so people think that the "cool" commercials are the only brands they can drink or else they will feel like a "loser". It really is terrible what the advertising industry is doing, and people wonder why underage drinking is at an all time high?

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