Alcohol Advertising in Magazines and Readership Demographics : Do Adolescents Matter for Regulation?

This paper examines the empirical relationship between alcohol advertising placements in magazines and adolescent readership. Poisson and negative binomial regressions are applied to count data on cumulative placements by beverage for 35 major magazines during the years 1997-2001. The results indicate that demographics other than youth readership determine the placement of alcohol advertisements in magazines. Beer and distilled spirits advertisers tend to favor magazines read by young adults, blacks, and males, but not adolescents. Wine advertisers tend to favor magazines read by older adults and higher-income adults, but not adolescents. Comparing alternative specifications and econometric models, the results fail to support direct or indirect targeting of adolescent readers. The empirical results are applied to regulatory issues as guided by Supreme Court decisions on commercial speech