In the United States, women are the target of alcohol advertising which exposes them to an increased risk of binge-drinking.
In the 21st century, in the United States, the free woman drinks as she pleases. She consumes without shame, without complex, like man, her equal. She acquired this right at the same time as her progressive emancipation, whereas in the rich countries the page is turning of a world where she was invited not to get too drunk, for reasons of “convenience”.
“Women in the United States drink a lot, a lot more than their mothers and grandmothers, and alcohol consumption is killing them at record rates,” write the authors of a survey of the United States. Washington post devoted to alcohol consumption among American women.
1 million emergency visits
In 2013, more than a million of them went to the emergency room after consuming an excessive dose of alcohol, the newspaper calculated based on data from federal health agencies. “The number of alcohol-related deaths has more than doubled since 1999 among white women aged 35 to 54,” a population particularly at risk according to the newspaper. This mortality represented 8% of all deaths in this group in 2015.
Why such an increase in indicators? The emancipation of the female gender is not the only explanation. “American women are getting mixed messages,” say the authors of the article, who conducted an analysis of alcohol marketing.
Over the past decades, it has focused on this new emerging target of women, with messages promoting intense alcohol consumption, perceived, precisely, as emancipatory. The same phenomenon has been observed with tobacco, reports the daily.
Business strategies
And the alcoholics are on target. They also base their commercial on the stress experienced by modern women – stress that alcohol can remove, at least temporarily. Analysis of the commercial strategies of the Washington post shows that exposure to this message is everywhere: in ads, social networks and, in fine, in popular belief.
These messages have well documented effects on both male and female behavior. Their propensity to increase the dose of alcohol ingested by exposed populations is the subject of numerous studies. According to experts interviewed by the daily, the fact that women are the recipients of these commercial messages poses a problem, while some may be pregnant, and when it seems that intensive consumption causes more damage to their body, smaller than that of men.
At the level of public institutions, the desire to protect the female population, but also male population, from excess alcohol is itself paradoxical. “Part of the federal government still supports the idea that drinking a little alcohol can be good for you,” explains the Post, which cites a National Institute of Health study funded to the tune of $ 100 million to demonstrate the benefits of moderate consumption …
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