Part Five: Alcohol-Environment and Exposure to Children

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From my understanding of alcohol marketing most makers and distributors of alcohol products advertise to gain market share of their particular brand. Of the entire drinking universe each market segment already consumes the level they are comfortable with – some extremely high and others low levels. With that fact already a given alcohol producers need to get the drinking segments to switch brands.

One of the downsides of this however, is that all this brand marketing to drinking age adults is also being viewed by our children. When planes are flying by, banners and flags flying from bars, billboard-trucks driving by and all the product placement within our retail stores – children are being exposed unnecessarily.

On top of this, in the overall climate of PB our children are being exposed to pub crawls, people staggering up and down the boardwalk and on the sand, loud, lewd behavior and disrespectful language. This might all be fine if only adults were experiencing it but, I am concerned when our kids witness this stuff. Surely, this is all making an impression on them?

The group I worry about most is our teenagers. They have opportunity upon opportunity to drink alcohol. Many people don’t see the harm, other than their own legal concerns, in handing a pre-21 year old an alcoholic drink.