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- “I think for any organization trying to curtail alcohol use or binge drinking, it’s almost imperative to have a social media presence because that’s where the kids are,” says Michael Siegal
- “I think for any organization trying to curtail alcohol use or binge drinking, it’s almost imperative to have a social media presence because that’s where the kids are,” says Michael Siegal
What will hold a college student’s attention longer: A tweet from a university about healthy alcohol consumption or an advertisement on a Facebook page from a beer company?
Social media is the new frontier for the alcohol industry to compete with universities and education groups for the attention of college-aged kids. The ultimate prize: their drinking habits.
Companies and other organizations are slowly following along as more students make the jump to social media. As of January 2014, 89% of internet-using young adults in the U.S. (ages 18 to 29) are on social media, according to a Pew Research Center survey. Facebook is used by 75.6% of millenials, according to comScore data, and 43.1% of millenials are on Instagram. About half of young adults ages 18 to 24 are on Snapchat.
“Universities use social media for promoting athletic events and campus activities and educational enrichment activities, so surely a good campus would put alcohol messages on the list,” says Ken Winters, director of the Center for Adolescent Substance Abuse Research at the University of Minnesota. “At minimum, I should know where I can get help on campus if I have a drinking problem and have occasional reminders of activities available that are alcohol-free.”
Universities have been largely unsuccessful in curbing student alcohol use. Reports suggest youth binge drinking has only slightly declined over the last 30 years. In May, a group of alcohol and public health experts released a report exploring how social media could help, suggesting universities could learn a few lessons from the profitable alcohol industry: targeting alcohol-related messages toward specific groups doesn’t have to just be an advertising gimmick.
A successful social media strategy, the report suggests, could customize content toward students based on their likelihood of risky alcohol consumption. For example, educational quizzes could be targeted at less-risky student drinkers and messages about therapy and rehab could go to those who may have alcohol dependence. The look and feel of the social media messages could also be easily adapted to students on different college campuses, where there can be widely different drinking cultures.
“I think for any organization trying to curtail alcohol use or binge drinking, it’s almost imperative to have a social media presence because that’s where the kids are,” says Michael Siegal , a professor at Boston University who studies the effects of marketing on youth substance use. “Especially since it looks like the alcohol companies have a presence, it can’t be a one-way street.”
In 2011, alcohol companies directed 7.9% of expenditures to online and other digital marketing – almost a four-fold increase from the 2% in 2008, a Federal Trade Commission study released in 2014 shows. At least 14 long-term studies have found that when young people are exposed to alcohol marketing in the mass media, they are more likely to start drinking or drink more than they already do.
In the first systematic study documenting alcohol branding on Facebook, Siegal and his colleagues found that in 2012, 898 alcohol brands had 1,017 separate sponsored Facebook webpages, including individual pages and accounts.
“There has been a lot of attention with alcohol advertising paid to traditional advertising, like magazines and TV. This shows us there’s this other area of alcohol promotion that we really need to consider,” Siegal says.
And webpages are only one of the many ways the alcohol industry is reaching young people on social media. Another method is through targeted advertising – but researchers have only scratched the surface in examining the prevalence and effect of social media alcohol advertising on young adults, and even fewer policymakers have looked at the issue.
The alcohol industry started self-regulating in 2003 to discourage marketing toward underage kids. In 2011, the industry adopted a new standard requiring 71.6% of the audience viewing alcohol ads be 21 or older. Still, alcohol companies often measure age by checking birthdates, which can easily be incorrect or falsified by young social media users.
“College-aged young people are the first legal market that alcohol companies can market to, so it makes sense to target them, particularly to establish brand preferences with that audience,” says Toben Nelson, an associate professor at the University of Minnesota who specializes in alcohol public health policies.
Alcohol is not all fun and beer pong for college students. Over the course of the last 30 years, public health experts and universities have realized the costs of binge-drinking and looked to make a change. Consumption is associated annually with more than 1,800 student deaths, 600,000 student injuries, almost 100,000 sexual assaults or rapes and 400,000 instances of unsafe sex. About 25% of college students report an academic problem because of drinking, from missing classes to failing out.
“I think the challenge is that the amount of money alcohol companies are spending to promote a different norm is simply drowning out those healthier messages,” Nelson says. “In taking a smarter and more efficient approach, we should look at policies that are placing reasonable restrictions on how much alcohol is marketed and sold and consumed.”
