Billboards
Background
Billboard advertising is an issue of growing concern to communities across America. Because the advertising messages are often "drink and smoke," these two issues are usually addressed together. However, to simplify the indexing of the Policy Profiles, only alcohol billboards are addressed in this document. Please see "tobacco" for information on tobacco billboards.
Many experts agree that alcohol advertising often glamorizes drinking. Studies have shown that the heaviest drinking occurs in the late teens and early 20s, and that these are ages when drinking patterns are established (1). Billboards are a major forum for alcohol advertising, costing the industry more than $110 million nationwide in 1989 (2). Children and youths are exposed to this medium as they travel to and from school and around their communities. Because they are permanent structures, billboards are a form of advertising that cannot simply be "turned off" by vigilant parents concerned about their impact on children (3).
Policies
- Regulate outdoor alcohol advertising.
The Alcohol Epidemiology Program at the University of Minnesota suggests that city and county ordinances be adopted to regulate content and location of alcohol-related billboards, signs on buildings, other stationary signs and advertising on the exterior of alcohol outlets. Join Together, a national organization that works to prevent alcohol-related problems, suggests banning alcohol advertising near schools, low-income housing and minority neighborhoods.
- Negotiate with billboard companies to reduce the number of alcohol billboards.
Join Together also encourages a direct approach to billboard companies:
- Document the location of billboards to determine if the alcohol industry is targeting certain low-income or cultural neighborhoods. Such information, when surfaced publicly, can be used to encourage billboard companies to change billboard location and content.
- Negotiate with billboard companies to eliminate or reduce the number of alcohol billboards.
- Ban all billboards or ban alcohol billboards.
Four states -- Vermont, Maine, Alaska and Hawaii -- ban all billboards. And some cities have banned the construction of new billboards (San Diego, Little Rock, St. Louis, and Houston). Other communities have agreed to allow the placement of new billboards only in exchange for the removal of ones in certain areas (Mobile, Alabama; Seattle; and Orlando, Florida) (4).
In Compton, California, alcohol billboards have been banned on free-standing signs and sides of buildings throughout the city.
Outright banning of billboards has long been questioned as a possible infringement of the constitutional right of the alcohol industry to free speech. But in April 1997, the U.S. Supreme Court let stand lower court decisions that upheld Baltimore's 1993 ordinance banning alcohol product billboards (5). The Marin Institute has produced a model alcohol billboard ordinance that is carefully crafted around the Baltimore case and other litigation.
Effectiveness Data
Communities across the nation have had success in decreasing alcohol advertising using policies like these. In Orlando, Florida, billboard companies are required to remove three alcohol billboards in exchange for every new billboard erected. Similar billboard exchange ordinances are in place in Mobile, Alabama, and Seattle, Washington. In Milwaukee, community activists convinced billboard companies to limit alcohol billboards to no more than 50 percent of existing billboards. The billboard companies also agreed to participate on a citizen's billboard content review board. In addition, they provide free billboard space for anti-drinking messages (6).
Contacts
Laurie Leiber
Center on Alcohol Advertising
Phone: 510-649-8942
Join Together
Phone: 617-437-1500
Web site: http://www.jointogether.org
Center for Science in the Public Interest
Phone: 202-332-9110
Marin Institute, "Preventing Alcohol Problems"
Phone: 415-456-5692 (model ordinances)
Deborah Werner
Executive Director
California Women's Commission
Phone: 818-376-0470
References
- Leiber L. Speech to Minnesota Organization. Center on Alcohol Advertising.
- McMahon E and Taylor P. Citizens' Action Handbook on Alcohol and Tobacco Billboard Advertising. Center for Science in the Public Interest, 1990. :3.
- Model Wisconsin Alcohol Control Ordinances. Billboards and Advertising, Alcohol Epidemiology Program, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota. Web site: http://www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/policy/adrstrct.html.
- Citizens' Action Handbook. :9 - 11.
- Citizen's Action Handbook. Insert.
- Save Lives: Recommendations to Reduce Underage Access to Alcohol & Action Steps for Your Community, Join Together. :37-39.
Acknowledgements
Armand Brint, Prevention Coordinator, Mendocino County Public Health Dept., Ukiah, CA
Mark Capitola, Sr. Policy Director, CalPartners Coalition, Sacramento, CA
Lori Dorfman, Co-Director, Berkeley Media Studies Group, Berkeley, CA
Griffith Edwards, D.M., Editor, Addiction, National Addiction Centre, University of London, London, U.K.
Barbara Graves, M.A., P.H., Executive Director, Southwest Community Health Center, Santa Rosa, CA
Kelley Green, R.N., Ph.D., Project Director, Western Coachella Valley Health Partnership, Palm Springs, CA
Tom Greenfield, Ph.D., Sr. Scientist & Principal Investigator, Alcohol Research Group, Berkeley, CA
Eduardo Hernandez, Ph.D., Project Director, CalPartners Coalition, Sacramento, CA
Connie Johnson, Project Coordinator Vista Community Clinic, Oceanside, CA
Michelle Johnston, M.P.H., Project Coordinator, Center for Civic Partnerships, Sacramento, CA
Joan Kiley, M.A., President, California Council on Alcohol Policy, Berkeley, CA
James M. Kooler, Ph.D., Deputy Director, CA Mentor Initiative, Department of Alcohol and Drug Programs, Sacramento, CA
Laurie Leiber, Executive Director, Center on Alcohol Advertising, Berkeley, CA
Andrew McGuire, Executive Director, Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, San Francisco, CA
James Mosher, J.D., Senior Policy Advisor, The Marin Institute, San Rafael, CA
Julie Pyatt, M.P.H., Project Coordinator, Mendocino County Public Health Dept., Ukiah, CA
Mari Rodin, Consultant, Hopper and Rodin Associates, Ukiah, CA
Rhonda Roman, M.P.H., Project Coordinator, Sonoma County Public Health Dept., Santa Rosa, CA
Michael Sparks, Project Director, Vallejo Fighting Back Initiative, Vallejo, CA
Kathy Staples, Supervisor, Alcohol & Drug Programs, Ventura, CA
Dennis Tootelian, Ph.D., Professor of Marketing, School of Business Administration , California State University, Sacramento
Joan M. Twiss, M.A., Project Director, Center for Civic Partnerships, Sacramento, CA
Friedner D. Wittman, Ph.D., M. Arch., Policy Director, Community Prevention Planning Program, Berkeley, CA