Policies and regulations for the alcohol industry a very different in Ireland and the USA. A new study has looked at whether these differences are reflected in alcohol consumption and associated problems with particular emphasis on advertising of alcoholic beverages. The researchers looked at brand, commercial name, appeal used (image, product, sex or humour), type of alcoholic beverage promoted, and the audience targeted as well as craft beer, health conscious, sports fan niches.
The type of appeal and the drink advertised did not vary in ads in the two regions. However, target audiences did vary widely as did the target audience by drink type. Many ads were obviously designed to appeal to young and even underage individuals. Successful alcohol advertisements reinforce the drink culture in both the USA and Ireland and persist in recruiting new generations of drinkers, the team reports.
Gibic, A., Natarajan, V.S. and Sen, K.C. (2018) ‘Appeals and spiels: a comparative analysis on alcohol advertising in the USA and Ireland’, Int. J. Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence, Vol. 4, No. 3, pp.293-310.