Fresh concerns today about alcohol advertising near schools.
Today's Medical Journal reports on a survey around more than 50 Auckland schools, which found each of them had at least one alcohol ad within 500 metres.
And it's pointing out there was alcohol advertising close to 63% of low-decile schools.
Instinctively, that doesn't sound so good but can we just back up the bus here for a second?
One alcohol ad within 500 metres of a school... does that strike you as an end of the world is nigh situation?
No, me neither.
If it's the only ad for anything in that 500 metre radius and it's as big as a house, maybe that would register but would it send you steaming off to a bottle shop?
Did advertising have anything to do with your early choices around drinking? No? Thought not.
More likely the influences that steered you towards or even away from a particular product, or from alcohol altogether, were a lot closer to home.
Wouldn't it have been your peers, your family, and the way they conducted themselves around alcohol?
That's likely where most of us get our early impressions of the pros and cons of alcohol.
Most likely where we saw it going a bit awry from time to time.
Now obviously advertising works. We know it does. Radio advertising works particularly well, just quietly.
And if advertising didn't work at all, businesses wouldn't do it.
Advertising for tobacco is maybe a good example. Did you know it's been 60 years since we started banning ads for tobacco on radio and television?
But did taking away the ads cause everyone to stop smoking overnight? No. It's taken a lot more work and a lot more regulation than that.
I'm not saying advertising doesn't play a part in encouraging people to try different brands.
But to jump from seeing a few ads to saying it causes young people to start drinking earlier and even binge drink, that's too much of a leap.
And to be honest, when you make wild claims based on small amounts of data you probably do your cause more harm than good.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.