College Students: Beer Ads = Binge Drinking?

[Kelly Antilles]

I was watching ESPN this morning and they were discussing beer ads during collegic sports on television being a major contributor to "binge drinking" on college campuses. Their definition of "binge" is 5-6 alcoholic beverages during one sitting.

Here's my question to you college students.

Do you think beer ads on television (especially during televised sports) cause students to drink excessively?

Should ads be banned from college sports broadcasts?


Alternately to everyone:

What do you think of the sexual connitations in beer ads? Are they another way to encourage binge drinking?

[Keevan_Colton]

Hmm.....do pint glasses of straight vodka count as just one drink?....'cause then I've never really been involved in binge drinking......

[The Yosemite Bear]

Funny over here we don't have Television or Movies, but we have a lot of College students, Binge drinking, Sexual goings on as a result of said binge drinking. I always thought it was the stupidity factor of being.

1. Young and not exactly fully aware of the consequences of actions
2. Being out from under mom & dad, over indulging in what you think you were being unnessarily denied acess to.
3. The ready availability contraband, and the opposite sex, plus privacy.

[Joe]

Do you think beer ads on television (especially during televised sports) cause students to drink excessively?

No, being college students causes students to drink excessively.

Should ads be banned from college sports broadcasts?

No, most of the people who watch college sports are not college students. And I don't see how the ads cause excessive drinking; like I said, college students are going to drink anyway.

What do you think of the sexual connitations in beer ads? Are they another way to encourage binge drinking?

Maybe.

[Durandal]

Do you think beer ads on television (especially during televised sports) cause students to drink excessively?

No, I think that making alcohol taboo causes students to drink excessively. Other countries, like France, Italy and Spain don't have nearly the kind of drinking problems that America does, and they introduce their children to alcohol at an early age. Canada's drinking age is 19, and you never hear about excessive drunk driving up there, to my knowledge.

American kids are taught that alcohol is bad, bad, bad and that they receive some sort of magical insight on their 21st birthday which allows them to drink responsibly (because no one over 21 has ever been arrested for drunk driving, of course ). So, when they get a chance to drink (late in high school, at university), they end up doing stupid shit to a) try and fit in, and b) get a rush from breaking the rules. As with most harmless things, banning them only makes people want them more. We all saw how successful prohibition was; why should the drinking age be any different?

Should ads be banned from college sports broadcasts?

No. It costs the networks money to run those games, and they have a right to sell advertising spots to cover the cost and make a profit.

Alternately to everyone:

What do you think of the sexual connitations in beer ads? Are they another way to encourage binge drinking?

Sex sells; that's all there is to it. It's like asking if showing Heidi Klum on a Victoria's Secret ad is a way of encouraging women to buy their products and men to subscribe to their catalogue.

[Hotfoot]

I was watching ESPN this morning and they were discussing beer ads during collegic sports on television being a major contributor to "binge drinking" on college campuses. Their definition of "binge" is 5-6 alcoholic beverages during one sitting.

Here's my question to you college students.

Reporting for duty.

Do you think beer ads on television (especially during televised sports) cause students to drink excessively?

No clue. I don't watch much TV while at school, nor have I for the past 6 1/2 years. Moreover, I don't watch sports. Final nail in the coffin, I'm a teetotaler, primarily because I can't stand the taste of the stuff any more than I can stand the taste of coffee.

There, your sample has now been appropriately skewed.

[weemadando]

5-6 drinks is a binge?

And thats American beer!

Soft...

[aerius]

5-6 drinks is a binge?

And thats American beer!

Soft...

Seriously, binge drinking in Ottawa was done by drinking straight out of the pitchers, who needs cups or glasses when you're trying to maximize alcohol intake? And then there's the fun stuff like "funneling" that's done by some of the frat boys.

[Kelly Antilles]

5-6 drinks is a binge?

Not my words, theirs.

Actually, most of the students they showed drinking were drinking imports.

[weemadando]

5-6 drinks is a binge?

And thats American beer!

Soft...

Seriously, binge drinking in Ottawa was done by drinking straight out of the pitchers, who needs cups or glasses when you're trying to maximize alcohol intake? And then there's the fun stuff like "funneling" that's done by some of the frat boys.

When its AT LEAST 1 bottle of spirits plus minimum 12 full-strength beers per person it becomes a binge drinking session. Welcome to Australia. All your livers are belong to us.

[Nathan F]

I see plenty of beer commercials, and I don't feel the need to drink to be happy or to have a good time. Heh, sometimes, it is just as fun to sit back and laugh your butt off at a party at all the other people are wasted.

While I do know that alcoholism is a disease and all, people who just go out and get wasted for the hell of it show a serious deficiency in judgement. And if you let commercials like that get you started drinking, then you have no self control whatsoever.

[Cal Wright]

It's so fucking annoying to hear shit like that. If they worked with me for one week and had to put up with the people I do, they'd change thier god damned tune. In a fucking hurry. That's all they talk about, first thing that morning, 'Man, I'm ready to go home and get drunk.'

[RedImperator]

That's idiotic. College students drink because it's fun, it's taboo, and all their friends are doing it. Christ, I don't drink because I see beer commercials--I drink because I like being drunk.

[Joe]

There's certainly no one to discourage us...hell, on gameday there are just as many middle-aged guys hanging around campus getting shitfaced as there are college kids, if not more.

[Darth Garden Gnome]

I highly doubt peoples actions, at least as important one as this, are influenced by commercials. They do it because they can, and couldn't before, or peer pressure.

Although I do find the commercials amusing when compared to oh, say, smoking commercials?

Typical Smoking Commercial: Did you know that smoking kills over [insert big number here] people every year?

Typical Beer/Other Alchohol Commercial: *Loud music plays, groups of friends running around someones house, laughing and having a good time, picking up chicks, ect.*

So remember kids, smoking is evil *grabs a 12 pack of beer, and chugs it all down in 30 seconds*

Ahhhhh! Love that fresh brewed taste!

[BrYaN19kc]

I like the some of the beer commercials -- sometimes they are more entertaining than the game.

As far as them causing me to drink more (or at all) is comical.

4 or 5 drinks in one sitting is binge drinking? Well, when we all go to the sports bar it's usuall 4 or 5 beers and a couple shots of Jaggermeister.

So during an evening out at a sports bar or at a club a person is suppsed to "sip" two or three drinks during the course of an entire evening? I don't think so!

[Illuminatus Primus]

5-6 drinks is a binge?

And thats American beer!

Soft...

Official definition, Mando.


Try 10-20. Foriegn beer.

I'll admit homegrown shit is shit in this case.

And I don't binge drink. I watch my friends spread liquid soap on the floor to make those who do fall on their piss-drunk ass.

Priceless.

[Nathan F]

It's so fucking annoying to hear shit like that. If they worked with me for one week and had to put up with the people I do, they'd change thier god damned tune. In a fucking hurry. That's all they talk about, first thing that morning, 'Man, I'm ready to go home and get drunk.'

Hey, I don't care if you go out and get drunk, but people who just go out every other day and get wasted at parties and end up making total fools of themselves, that is what I have a problem with.

And I have to put up with some good ones at the job I work at, trust me.


<edit: fixed typo>

[InnerBrat]

I have to agree with Durandal. The legal drinking age in America is stupidly high, and taken too seriously.

Most britons are seaoned sensible drinkers by the time they're 18, and a lot of the excessiveness has happened at house parties where a rown up was there to hold back hair and keep an eye out (drinking within a house is legal from 16).

[salm]

i see a lot of beer and schnaps ads and drink a lot of both. i guess they work.

i think that the drinking age should be under the age of getting a drivers licence.
people will learn how to handle alcohol before they´re able to get piss drunk and then get into a car.

[Tsyroc]

I have to agree with Durandal. The legal drinking age in America is stupidly high, and taken too seriously.

Most britons are seaoned sensible drinkers by the time they're 18, and a lot of the excessiveness has happened at house parties where a rown up was there to hold back hair and keep an eye out (drinking within a house is legal from 16).

I think the main reasons our drinking age is 21 is drunk driving and that in most cases 21 year olds aren't in high school or hanging around with high school age kids. When I was in high school the drinking age was changed to 21 but there were a few people who were grandfathered into the previous drinking age of 19 years of age. I think by making it 21 the government was trying to cut down on the number of high school booze parties.

[Stuart Mackey]

5-6 is a binge? WTF? Where do they get that idea? 12 binge, maybe depending on your tolerance. of yeah..put down a bottle of good spirits..not cheap stuff..gahh, bad memorys of cheap vodka *shudder*

[Tsyroc]

5-6 drinks is a binge?

And thats American beer!

Soft...

Okay, that reminds me of a story I was told about the difference between Australlian bars and American bars. The gist of it was that American bartenders are required to cut people off it they think they are too drunk to drive or just too drunk period. Australlian bartenders keep serving as long as the guy still has money to pay and can reach the bar. Having not been in any Australlian bars (and few bars in general) I'm only recalling the joke/story not stating any facts.

[Stuart Mackey]

5-6 drinks is a binge?

And thats American beer!

Soft...

Okay, that reminds me of a story I was told about the difference between Australlian bars and American bars. The gist of it was that American bartenders are required to cut people off it they think they are too drunk to drive or just too drunk period. Australlian bartenders keep serving as long as the guy still has money to pay and can reach the bar. Having not been in any Australlian bars (and few bars in general) I'm only recalling the joke/story not stating any facts.

I will never forget an American lecturer I once had who, when first teaching at Otago uni in NZ, was surprised to find a small party that had a mini tanker o beer parked up outside.

[Tsyroc]

5-6 is a binge? WTF? Where do they get that idea? 12 binge, maybe depending on your tolerance. of yeah..put down a bottle of good spirits..not cheap stuff..gahh, bad memorys of cheap vodka *shudder*

Remember the U.S. did BAN alcohol for awhile. We have lots of fundies, especially protestant, that are against drinking for religious reasons. We have several groups like MADD which are against irresponsible drinking (for good reasons) so as a side effect there are plenty of people who either don't drink at all or barely drink looking at the "heavy" drinkers from a rather judgemental place. Heavy drinking has also been linked to domestic abuse, rapes, etc.... There have also been some hightly publicized cases where during hazing rituals (fraternities) people have died from over drinking.

It's funny but on the way home from work yesterday morning. I was listening to a radio health program that was talking about Spring Break binge drinking. It was really getting after the alcohol companies that were benefitting from the lower drinking ages in Mexico. One of the parts was trying to convince people that it was immoral of the alcohol companies to be targeting 18 year old Americans while they were in Mexico because they were under age in the U.S. The advertising representative for several of the companies pointed out that the parents should take responsibility for allowing or not allowing there "childern" to go someplace like Cancun, Mexico if they know the main reason for going there during Spring Break is to get tanked.