US youth is exposed to around two hours and 30 minutes of popular music a day, and with it eight mentions of alcohol brands, according to new academic research led by the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth. Hip-hop lyrics favour luxury brands, such as Cristal and Hennessy, and brand references in rap music have been steadily increasing. The research finds that drinking and binge drinking are more common among young people who like tracks with alcohol brand names.
“People often underestimate the impact of advertising on health behaviours, such as drinking, smoking, and eating energy-dense foods,” says Lisa Henriksen, senior research scientist at the Stanford Prevention Research Center. “The idea that people mistakenly assume that others’ behaviours are more influenced by advertising than their own behaviours is known as the third-person effect.”
She adds, “It would be foolish to think that the alcohol industry is unaware of and uninvolved with alcohol-brand mentions in music.”
A study from Boston University School of Public Health found that one quarter of the most popular tracks in the Billboard charts over a three-year period mentioned alcohol, with Patron tequila, Hennessy cognac, Grey Goose vodka and Jack Daniel’s whiskey accounting for half of brand mentions in songs.
Research conducted last year found that there were 208 brand references on Kanye West’s last seven studio albums, with cars, drink and food featuring regularly.