Advertising, Social Media and Young People
Professor Christine Griffin
Psychology, University of Bath
November 2013
All-Party Parliamentary Group
on Alcohol Misuse
Young people’s drinking and online alcohol
marketing – key questions
What forms does
alcohol marketing via
social media take?
2) How does this engage
with young people
drinking practices &
their social media use?
3) What do young people
think about online
alcohol marketing?
1)
Young people and the culture of intoxication

Drinking to get (very) drunk

Linked to alcohol availability,
price, targeted products,
venues aimed at youth
More liberal alcohol policies,
licensing regulation


Relationship between
exposure to online alcohol
marketing & consumption
Social networking and young people’s
drinking
 Rapid growth in use of social media & mobile
technologies (smartphones) amongst young people
 Facebook most popular - 1 billion users in October
2012
 Drinking and getting drunk most common themes in
young people’s Facebook pages
 Sharing photos of self and others drinking (and drunk)
very common amongst young people
Digital alcohol marketing
 Digital marketing budgets increasing rapidly
 Diageo: Social media marketing accounted for 21% of its
marketing budget in 2010
 In 2011 Diageo brands had collectively enjoyed a 20%
increase in sales as a “direct result of Facebook activity”
 Goal is “user engagement” (Socialbakers, 2013)
Alcohol marketing via social media





Adverts on FB / twitter/
across social media
‘Likes’, ‘comments’ and
‘shares’ on FB pages of
drink brands, bars, clubs
Promotions, Events – ‘real
world tie-ins’
Smartphone apps
And much much more ….
Smirnoff Nightlife Exchange
project
‘Let’s get wasted’ and other smartphone apps
Young people’s drinking and social media
project
Aotearoa (New Zealand) Research Team
Antonia Lyons, Ian Goodwin & Patricia Niland (Massey University, Wellington)
 Tim McCreanor, Helen Moewaka Barnes, Acushla Dee O’Carroll & Tuiloma
Lina Samu (Whariki Research Unit, Massey University, Auckland)
Also:
 Fiona Hutton (Victoria University, Wellington, Aotearoa/NZ)
 Kerryellen Vroman (University of New Hampshire, USA)
 Supported by the Marsden Fund, administered by the Royal Society of New
Zealand (contract MAU0911).

New Zealand study:
Stage 1
37 friendship group discussions with 154
participants
Stage 2
23 individual
interviews with
laptop/online
access
Stage 3
Analysis of online representations of young
people drinking, including advertising via
social media
Dylan:
I think the reason why we have the drinking photos is because it
makes your life like more fun, so you're always doing something
Lo:
It's memories as well and all your friends are out together on the
piss and you do have fun. So you take photos and some of them
will be funny photos, and you'll just look at them and crack up
and go oh my gosh, do you remember when you were that
wasted? [laughing]
Extract 1 European/Pakeha Group 1; 4 females
Krystal oh yeah, if you don’t really remember what happened the night
before, like you will see a photo and it will trigger your memory
and then you will remember what happened
Extract 2 Maori Group 24; 2 males 2 females
Trish:
Alex:
Jack:
Mark:
Alex:
Trish:
Mark:
Jack:
Alex:
Trish:
Jack:
Mark:
Alex:
Do you see any alcohol advertising online?
Yeah - no.
there might be some somewhere
I don’t think - oh are they allowed to?
I never see it online bro. Not on Facebook or anything. I always
just see it on a billboard
Have you seen any Facebook profiles, like Tui or Cruiser or?
Oh yeah [all nod].
Yeah.
Yeah I have seen that. You can like them. And then oh it'll just be on
Facebook so often you'll come across a friend in the notification or the
update his profile update it'll just say [name] likes 42 Below New
Zealand vodka and you click on it and it'll be like a description of what
it's about. Stuff like that. What flavours. Where you can get it from.
Do you think that could be advertising?
Yeah it's gotta be.
Oh not necessarily.
Not necessarily
Extract 3 European /Pakeha group Group 7; 3 males
Key research findings




Young people exposed to a great deal
of alcohol-related marketing online
Not just exposure –interactive
engagement
Online alcohol marketing infiltrates
young people’s social lives and
drinking practices
Young people do not necessarily view
online alcohol marketing as
advertising
Implications for public health
 Current regulatory &
health promotion
strategies outmoded
 Behavioural change
approaches too
individualised
 Regulation of alcohol
marketing should include
social media & digital /
mobile technologies
 Monitoring &
‘transparency reports’ on
industry activities
The sobriety test puts users through a
series of “coordination and cognition”
tests such as “drag your mouse in a
straight line,” “type the alphabet
backwards,” or “follow the finger.” A low
score results in a friendly admonition to
avoid sending that tweet or whatever the
case may be and a recommendation for a
taxi company based on your phone’s geolocation.
The app allows users to customize which
sites they wish to block and at what time
of the day they are most likely to commit
regrettable acts.
New Zealand study at: http://drinkingcultures.info/
Follow on twitter: @drinkcultures
UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies at: www.ukctas.ac.uk
Follow me on twitter: @chris_griffin55
Email: c.griffin@bath.ac.uk
References
McCreanor, T., Lyons, A., Goodwin, I., Moewaka Barnes, H., Griffin,
C. and Hutton, F. (2013). Youth drinking cultures, social
networking and alcohol marketing: Implications for public health.
Critical Public Health. 23(1): 110-120.
Goodwin, I., Lyons, A., Griffin, C. and McCreanor, T. (forthcoming).
Ending up online:@ Interrogating mediated youth drinking
cultures. In: A. Bennett and B. Robards (eds.) Mediated Youth
Cultures: The Internet, Belonging and New Cultural
Configurations. London: Palgrave.
Griffin, C., Szmigin, I., Bengry-Howell, A., Hackley, C. and Mistral, W.
(2013). Inhabiting the contradictions: Hypersexual femininity and
the culture of intoxication among young women in the UK.
Feminism and Psychology. 23(2): 184-206.