Expert Links Ads and Drinking

Liquor advertising sells attitudes about drinking that exacerbate an already serious problem of alcoholism in the U.S., a media critic told approximately 100 students gathered in Boylston Hall last night.

"The greatest threat comes from corporations bent on increasing profits no matter what the costs," said Dr. Jean Kilbourne, a film producer and writer who sits on the board of directors of the National Council on Alcoholism. The alcohol industry takes in $65 billion in revenue each year and spends $1 billion in advertising, she said.

More than half the alcohol sold in this country is consumed by less than 10 percent of the drinkers here, Kilbourne said. Such figures indicate that liquor companies rely primarily on problem drinkers to make their profits, Kilbourne said.

Devastate the Industry

"If all alcoholics were to recover, what would happen?" Kilbourne asked. "It would devastate the alcohol industry. The heavy user is the best user."

Many alcohol companies maintain that the purpose of their advertising is simply to encourage people who already drink to switch brands. But Kilbourne said that the approaches used by advertisers are clearly designed to appeal to new users.

Sex is one of the biggest sellers of alcohol, Kilbourne said, pointing to one advertisement which reads, "May all your screwdrivers be Harvey Wallbangers."

Other advertisements lure young people with implicit promises of greater sexual confidence and instant athletic ability, she said.

"In alcohol ads they take the very qualities that abuse of alchol diminishes and destroys," Kilbourne said. "They take reality and turn it around."

Other ads encourage people to deny that alcoholism is a problem by playing on feelings of alienation and loneliness, Kilbourne said. One example she cited depicted a tropical island, which she said made a virtue out of an alcoholic's sense of isolation.

"It takes the symptom and glorifies it," Kilbourne said. "You're not on your own, you're on your own special island."

Kilbourne said that a large-scale campaign of negative publicity would be the most effective way to offset the harmful effects of alcohol advertising. She said that society's attitudes about smoking have shifted dramatically in recent years and expressed hope than a similar change could occur with alcohol.

Kilbourne is a visiting scholar at Wellesley College this semester.

Her speech was sponsored by Project ADD (Alcohol and Drug Dialogue), a Harvard group that attempts to raise student awareness about substance abuse.