Drug Marketing to teens?
The Guardian – Drug marketing has been trying to target the youthful population in order to get new generations of consumers to buy products for generations to come. Tobacco producers in particular are taking advantage of today’s electronic world by targeting individuals on social networking sites such as Facebook and going to music festivals to try to expose kids to their products.
Effects of exposure to cigarette ads
Addictive Behaviors – Increased exposure to cigarette ads is associated with increases in adolescent smoking. The reason is the adolescent’s self concept and how well they identify with models in cigarette ads. Younger individuals who are greatly influenced by others are more likely to smoke after being exposed to the models who are smoking in cigarette ads. Adults showed the opposite results – individuals who weakly identified with the models in cigarette ads were more likely to smoke and the individuals who were highly influenced by the models were less likely to smoke.
Prescription Drug Use
Addiction Inbox-Americans scored higher on prescription drug use than any other country, though this study looked at a set of drugs other than those that are traditionally considered when thinking about drug abuse. This British study study looked at prescription drug use for diseases such as cancer and Hepatitis C.
ABC News– In the last decade alone prescription drug abuse has gone up 400 percent. This finding held despite the increased number of individuals who are seeking treatment for prescription drug use problems.
Binge Drinking
Join Together– It is no surprise that college students drink, they do it for fun, to fit in, and in order to enjoy the freedom from parental supervision that is missing in college. Students however do not think of the repercussions that drinking may have on their body later on in life. Everyone has heard that drinking to much can cause liver damage or failure but research has found that binge drinking can also cause osteoporosis later in life.