Binge drinking is “defined as consuming five or more drinks in a row,” according to the study.
According to a study conducted by James D. Sargent, a professor of pediatrics at Dartmouth Medical School, young teens who watch movies laden with alcohol advertisements are twice as likely to start drinking earlier than their peers.
Kids who see a lot of movies are twice as likely to binge drink compared with kids who do not see a lot of movies, Sargent said.
The study tested 6,522 American children, 10 to 14 years old. Each child was tested to see their personal exposure to drinking by their friends and family. The subject’s exposure to alcohol in movies was also tested.
“This study shows that exposure to movie depictions of alcohol predicts alcohol onset and progression to binge drinking during adolescence,” Sargent said.
Sargent said that alcohol is present in almost 90 percent of films.
“Movies are like influenza, only they’re a commodity,” Sargent said.
Movies made in the United States are distributed worldwide — and children in other continents are influenced in the same way as adolescents in the United States, he said.
Penn State U. senior Shelby Lordi said one of her favorite movies was “Superbad,” in which the characters’ ability to obtain alcohol made them look popular, she said.
“It makes you look like the cool kid…if you have the alcohol,” Lordi said.
At Penn State, Smeal College of Business Professor Emeritus of Marketing Marvin Goldberg researched alcohol and tobacco marketing to youth. Goldberg said when people go to movies, their guard is down — they are not expecting to see an alcohol advertisement. Movies are created reality that can influence our subconscious, he said.
He said that like alcohol, cigarette companies are also advertised in movies. Cigarette companies used to pay actors and actresses to smoke their brand, Goldberg said.
Sargent said parents should avoid any material that increases their children’s exposure to alcohol. To prevent their exposure, parents should not let their children watch adult-rated movies, he said.
But Lordi said forbidding movies with alcohol might just make children want to watch them even more.
Dr. Susanne E. Tanski, a pediatric physician and contributor to the Dartmouth Medical School study, said parents should be aware of risks associated with alcohol and media to help alleviate future problems.
Tanski said it is important to reinforce that alcohol-saturated movies are not reality. Parents should counter-advertise the message alcohol sends in movies to prevent binge drinking, she said.