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. 2016 Jul;51(4):487-92.
doi: 10.1093/alcalc/agv128. Epub 2015 Nov 22.

Alcohol Marketing on Twitter and Instagram: Evidence of Directly Advertising to Youth/Adolescents

Adam E Barry  1 , Austin M Bates  2 , Olufunto Olusanya  2 , Cystal E Vinal  2 , Emily Martin  2 , Janiene E Peoples  2 , Zachary A Jackson  2 , Shanaisa A Billinger  2 , Aishatu Yusuf  2 , Daunte A Cauley  2 , Javier R Montano  2
Affiliations

Alcohol Marketing on Twitter and Instagram: Evidence of Directly Advertising to Youth/Adolescents

Adam E Barry et al. Alcohol Alcohol. 2016 Jul.

Abstract

Aims: Assess whether alcohol companies restrict youth/adolescent access, interaction, and exposure to their marketing on Twitter and Instagram.

Methods: Employed five fictitious male and female Twitter (n = 10) and Instagram (n = 10) user profiles aged 13, 15, 17, 19 and/or 21. Using cellular smartphones, we determined whether profiles could (a) interact with advertising content-e.g. retweet, view video or picture content, comment, share URL; and/or (b) follow and directly receive advertising material updates from the official Instagram and Twitter pages of 22 alcohol brands for 30 days.

Results: All user profiles could fully access, view, and interact with alcohol industry content posted on Instagram and Twitter. Twitter's age-gate, which restricts access for those under 21, successfully prevented underage profiles from following and subsequently receiving promotional material/updates. The two 21+ profiles collectively received 1836 alcohol-related tweets within 30 days. All Instagram profiles, however, were able to follow all alcohol brand pages and received an average of 362 advertisements within 30 days. The quantity of promotional updates increased throughout the week, reaching their peak on Thursday and Friday. Representatives/controllers of alcohol brand Instagram pages would respond directly to our underage user's comments.

Conclusion: The alcohol industry is in violation of their proposed self-regulation guidelines for digital marketing communications on Instagram. While Twitter's age-gate effectively blocked direct to phone updates, unhindered access to post was possible. Everyday our fictitious profiles, even those as young as 13, were bombarded with alcohol industry messages and promotional material directly to their smartphones.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors have no conflicts of interest (financial or otherwise) to report.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Cumulative number of Instagram updates sent from 22 alcohol companies to users (13–21) over a 30-day period.
Fig. 2.
Fig. 2.
Comparison of average weekday Instagram updates received by of-age profiles and underage profiles within 30-day period.
Fig. 3.
Fig. 3.
Examples of alcohol industry direct communication/correspondence with underage profiles.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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