Alcohol ads work.

Byline: The Register-Guard

The alcoholic beverage industry's long-standing effort to claim that its advertising isn't responsible for influencing young people's drinking behavior has failed to withstand scientific analysis.

In what seems unremarkably logical to anyone who isn't attempting to bamboozle federal regulators or concerned parents, researchers have confirmed that the more alcohol ads young people are exposed to, the more alcohol they'll drink.

The standard claim by the alcoholic beverage industry is that alcohol advertising influences only those over the age of 21. Even that influence, they argue, is restricted to brand switching, not consumption levels.

Hello? How could anyone suggest with a straight face that people under 21 are mysteriously unaffected by seeing other young people - usually accompanied by scantily-clad "cheerleaders" - relentlessly hawking beer during nationally televised sporting events?

A study published this month in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine found that for every extra alcohol advertisement viewed per month by an individual, his or her alcoholic beverage consumption rose by 1 percent. There was no difference in alcohol consumption between those over the age of 21 and those under.

The implication is obvious - and ominous - for the alcoholic beverage industry, which spends $1.8 billion a year on advertising. Reducing young people's exposure to alcohol advertising will reduce underage drinking and its associated tragic consequences.

Any questions?