earticle

영어

[Background] Alcohol is the 9th largest factor for the global burden of disease, and national policies to reduce negative consequences of alcohol use are executed in many nations. Exposure to alcohol beverage advertisement and marketing is known to put adolescents and young adults at the great risk for onset and increased consumption of alcohol. [Purpose] According to WHO, regulations for alcohol marketing is one of the most effective policies to reduce negative consequences of alcohol use along with price and accessibility regulations of alcohol. However, the current alcohol marketing regulations in South Korea mainly focus on alcohol marketing through traditional media such as TV, radio, and newspapers, and do not sufficiently cover digital marketing using various new communication media. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the prevalence and types of violence against alcohol advertising regulations through Facebook. [Method] We analyzed the postings of Facebook accounts of 78 alcohol beverage manufacturing companies from March 24th to 31st in 2017. [Results] Overall, 92 postings were newly uploaded by 27 alcohol beverage manufacturing companies’ Facebook account. When comparing advertisements of different kinds of alcoholic beverages, 87 postings (43.7%) were related for Soju, which was followed by 41 postings (20.6%) for whiskey, 18 (9.0%) for beer. In terms of different marketing approaches, most postings tend to deliver information to promote alcohol consumptions such as showing alcohol drinking games, season related messages, food and settings that may go well with alcohol beverages, and other alcohol related information such as how alcohol beverages are produced. There was no posting on broad image marketing by any alcohol manufacturing company. In addition, 85.9% (79 postings) appeared to have violated the chapter 10 of the National Health Promotion Act on alcohol advertisement regulations. The most frequently violated regulation was that 82.6% (76 postings) did not present the warning label (76 postings). Also, 33.7% (31 postings) advertised alcoholic beverages that contained over 17% of alcohol, and 5.4% (5 postings) offered gifts; 33.7% (31 postings) violated 2 or more regulations at the same time. The results suggest the needs to strengthen the alcohol marketing through online communication media because such media have extended their influence on health behaviors through social network and smartphone interface.