| by Shari Johnson
And the sad part is, most children are not afraid of him because he is a
frequent guest in their homes. Not necessarily by parents, but through
the marketing industry.
The alcohol industry has long been given free
reign to their shameless promotion of alcohol to "legal aged drinkers",
although their ads are strategically placed at eye level to young
children in convenience stores, with television commercials played
during programs watched more often than not by younger viewers.
The report, from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at
Georgetown University in Washington, results from 2007 data that the
center began compiling in 2001. The report finds that the number of
commercials for alcoholic beverages seen by the average TV viewer
ages 12 to 20 increased to 301 last year from 216 in 2001.
The
increase came despite the adoption by marketers of most alcoholic
beverages of voluntary curbs on where they buy commercial time.
The question is whether the industry "is being as responsible as it could be in protecting
kids from the advertising," said David H. Jernigan, executive director at the center. "We
have seen reductions" in the amount of commercials watched by young viewers on
broadcast TV, he added, but the exposure is increasing on cable TV as the industry
spends more money in that medium.
"Cable is where 95 percent of the youth
overexposure" was last year," Mr. Jernigan said, and 41 percent of that came in spots
for distilled spirits compared with 53 percent from beer advertising. (The rest was for
other types of alcoholic beverages.)
And now, if the television industry didn't have enough negative impact on our youth, a
Las Vegas based video game maker has created a new title for the Nintendo Wii gaming
system based on a popular bar and frat house basement game "beer pong".
Adding
insult to injury, (knowing their audience) the Entertainment Software Rating Board gave
it a rating that it was suitable for children as young as 13!
The odd response from the rating board president? The rating was appropriate because
she says beer actually plays a very small role in the game and there are no scenes of
drinking. We'd like to point out that the word "beer" appeared in the game title. This has the Connecticut attorney general questioning the rating board's judgment and
criteria.
To quell criticism the game maker, JV Games, has renamed the game 'Pong Toss' and
all references to alcohol have been removed. The game box artwork reflects this
change but oddly enough the image file name for the artwork still reads "BP_largebox."
Umm, what could BP stand for, we wonder? [Source: USA Today]
So some of you may ask, "Why bring it up, if it's no longer an issue?" The issues is this,
very subtly behaviors you would in no way want your child to mimic are being brought
into our homes unaware. Violent games that are "just for fun" are now being played out
on the evening news.
My job in prevention programming is all about prevention, and prevention must start at
home. The school cannot undo the programming in a child from hours of "inappropriate"
television and game viewing. Inappropriate meaning "television and games with violent
sexual, or content sending a positive message of alcohol or drug abuse".
It's not illegal for children to view such material. But often the behavior that's mimicked
is. | 
