New Delhi.– This study may echo the views of supporters of the recent ban on smoking in Bollywood movies, as it has been revealed that young people who view more alcohol advertisements tend to drink more alcohol. 

Young people are beginning to drink at an earlier age than ever before and their actions can have consequences ranging from poor grades to alcoholism and car accidents, according to background information in the article.

Several studies have found an association between exposure to alcohol advertisements and youth drinking, but have not been able to establish causality, the authors write. 

The alcohol industry has no federal restrictions on its advertising but is subject to voluntary codes dictating that 70 percent of the audience for their advertisements be adults older than age 21. 

The authors report that these ads still appear frequently in media aimed at young people.  

Young adults who reported viewing more alcohol advertisements on average also reported drinking more alcohol on average – each additional advertisement viewed per month increased the number of drinks consumed by 1 percent. 

The same percentage increase, 1 percent per advertisement per month, applied to underage drinkers (those younger than age 21) as well.  

The authors also analyzed youth drinking in relation to advertising dollars spent in respondents’ media markets, based on information purchased from an industry source. 

They also purchased information about total alcohol sales in each state. 

“It is important to control for total alcohol consumption levels because markets with greater sales may attract more alcohol advertising from brands competing to sell in markets with more heavy drinkers,” they write.  

“Given that there was an impact on drinking using an objective measure of advertising expenditures, the results are inconsistent with the hypothesis that a correlation between advertising exposure and drinking could be caused entirely by selective attention on the part of drinkers,” the authors report.