The Frequency of Company-Sponsored Alcohol Brand-Related Sites on Facebook™ –2012

Abstract

Background: This research provides an estimate of the frequency of company-sponsored alcohol brand-related sites on Facebook™. Objectives: We conducted a systematic overview of the extent of alcohol brand-related sites on Facebook™ in 2012. Methods: We conducted a 2012 Facebook™ search for sites specifically related to 898 alcohol brands across 16 different alcoholic beverage types. Descriptive statistics were produced using Microsoft SQL Server. Results: We identified 1,017 company-sponsored alcohol-brand related sites on Facebook™. Conclusions: Our study advances previous literature by providing a systematic overview of the extent of alcohol brand sites on Facebook™.

Keywords :

• social media
• Facebook
• alcohol

THE AUTHORS

Siphannay Nhean, MPH, served as a Program Analyst for the Department of Veterans Affairs Northeast Program Evaluation Center in West Haven, CT. In this role she assisted in a Congressionally mandated evaluation of programs that provide services to homeless veterans. Prior to this, Ms. Nhean served as head of Compliance and Grants and Contracts Administrator for the Health & Disability Research Institute at Boston University. She also contributed to a National Institutes of Health sponsored clinical trial looking at the efficacy of a home-based exercise program for older adults who have suffered a hip fracture. While serving as Project Coordinator for this clinical trial, Ms. Nhean obtained her Master in Public Health degree in Social and Behavioral Services from the Boston University School of Public Health in 2009. Ms. Nhean brings with her many years of clinical and laboratory research experience along with program evaluation knowledge. Her passion for public health also includes participation in media advocacy projects that have been published in peer-reviewed journals.

Justin Nyborn, MPH, is a Project Manager for the Center for Outcomes and Policy Research at the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston, MA. He assists with research on the quality of communication, care, and relationships between children with cancer, their parents, and their oncologists, often at the end-of-life. He previously worked for the Framingham Heart Study investigating neuropsychology and aging research. His research interests include public policy initiatives and social justice outreach. Recently, he helped to conduct research on the implications of alcohol advertising to youth on social media outlets and on Boston's public transportation system.

Danielle Hinchey, MPH, is a policy writer in the Department of Health and Social Services at the Delaware Psychiatric Center. She is a passionate public health professional with over seven years of research experience in the field of social and behavioral science.

Heather Valerio, BS, has received her BS from Boston University with a major in health science, and more recently received her Master's in Public Health from the University of Glasgow. Currently, she is working as an epidemiologist/researcher at Glasgow Caledonian University under the Scottish Sexual Health and Blood Borne Virus Framework. Her principal research field includes hepatitis C related risk behaviors, treatment outcomes, and reinfection among persons who inject drugs.

Kathryn Kinzel, MPH, received her MPH from the Boston University School of Public Health. Presently she works for the city of Boston as an epidemiologist, focusing on infectious disease prevention and emergency department syndromic surveillance for a variety of conditions, including alcohol related visits.

Michael Siegel, MD, is a Professor in the Department of Community Health Sciences at the Boston University School of Public Health. He has been a researcher in the tobacco control area for the past 25 years. Recently, he began conducting alcohol research, transferring many of the research methods he developed in the tobacco field over to alcohol. He is co-Principal Investigator for an NIAAA-funded study of alcohol brand use among underage youth.

David H. Jernigan, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society and the Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, where he teaches courses on media advocacy and alcohol policy. He also leads two other research projects: a collaboration with Boston University School of Public Health looking at youth alcohol brand preference and brand-level exposure to alcohol marketing, and a four-university collaborative examining the social and health effects of changes in alcohol pricing. He has worked as an adviser to the World Health Organization and the World Bank; was principal author of WHO's first Global Status Report on Alcohol and Global Status Report on Alcohol and Youth, and coauthored Media Advocacy and Public Health: Power for Prevention, and Alcohol in the Developing World: A Public Health Perspective.

GLOSSARY

• Company-sponsored site: A nonpersonal or private Facebook site or group site that promotes specific alcohol brands.

• Advertising age: A magazine that delivers news, analysis, and data on marketing and media.

• Diageo: A British multinational alcoholic beverages company and one of the largest producers of alcohol brands across spirits, beer, and wine.

• Federal Trade Commission (FTC): A government agency whose mission is: “To prevent business practices that are anticompetitive or deceptive or unfair to consumers; to enhance informed consumer choice and public understanding of the competitive process; and to accomplish this without unduly burdening legitimate business activity.”