Local conference to focus on social media and health

Using social media to improve adolescent health is the topic of a conference being held in Seattle next week. One way that social media can improve health is by providing easy access to information about health-related topics, such as teen drug use.  In the video below, Dr. Megan Moreno talks about how parents can guide their children in accessing online health information.



Similar videos are available on the SMAHRT YouTube page, providing a good example of how social media can be used to share health-related information.  Prevention WINS shares information through YouTube, Facebook, this blog, and Twitter.

The conference takes place July 31 through August 2 and information is available on the SMAHRT website.  Registration costs $10 per day - a bargain!

Online alcohol advertising impacts underage drinking

From the Prevention Hub:

This recent review of latest research highlights the huge immediate and longer term impact of online alcohol marketing on young people. It can result in drinking larger quantities, drinking at an earlier age, drinking more frequently and binge drinking. One study found that the effect of online alcohol advertising was almost twice as strong as that of traditional marketing. Two others highlight the informal influence of social media where young people see intoxicated friends and where drinking is perceived as the norm. Furthermore, such marketing and informal influences are largely unregulated or only self-regulated by the alcohol and advertising industries. We have covered many other studies emphasizing these problems and the particular vulnerability of young people.

Here in Seattle, Dr. Megan Moreno and the Social Media and Adolescent Health Research Team conduct research about the impact of social media on college student's substance use.  

The Center for Alcohol Marketing and Youth also provides information about the effects of online alcohol advertising on adolescents.

FTC requires alcohol producers to release information about digital marketing

The Federal Trade Commission has required 14 major alcoholic beverage advertisers to provide information for the agency’s fourth major study on the effectiveness of voluntary industry guidelines for reducing advertising and marketing to underage audiences by beer, wine, and distilled spirits manufacturers.

For the first time, the agency will request information on Internet and digital marketing and data collection practices.  As in previous studies, the FTC also will seek advertising expenditure and placement data, and background information about the advertisers’ business practices.

The marketing landscape has changed dramatically since 2008, the last time the FTC collected this kind of information.  Today there is a much greater emphasis on social media. For example, Bacardi has at least seven Facebook pages, with a total of 1.7 million fans, according to David Jernigan, Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. He notes that Captain Morgan Rum has a video game app for iPhones. Many companies connect with consumers through Twitter.

Jernigan says that outside of regulating “unfair or misleading” advertising, the FTC generally allows the alcohol industry to set its own ad guidelines.  See the April 20 post about how one alcoholic beverage company gets around some of its own guidelines.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released a video describing the problem of binge drinking including the increase in youth exposure to alcohol advertising in recent years.

For more information about how the alcoholic beverage industry uses social media, view the CAMY YouTube videos about digital alcohol marketing.

Marketing alcohol to young people through social media

Alcohol marketing on Facebook?  Most of us are familiar with alcohol advertising on television and print media.  But what do we know about alcohol advertising on social media sites?

The Center for Alcohol Marketing & Youth (CAMY) at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have developed a 4-part YouTube video series that charts the marketing push into digital markets such as Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter.  Each video is only a few minutes long and well worth the time.