Alcoholic beverage Essay Example for Free

Alcoholic beverage Essay The objectives of the study was to examine if consumption of alcohol affect students academic performance, to determine if consumption of alcohol promote flirting , to determine whether the consumption of alcohol lead to road accidents and also to determine whether television adverts of alcoholic beverages lead to increase consumption. The target population of the study included all students pursuing Bachelor of Science Psychology programme in the University of Cape Coast. A sample size of 79 was chosen for the study. The simple random sampling method was adopted in selecting the sample. Questionnaire was the main instrument used to seek answers to research questions. The collected data was analysed using frequency count and percentages. The findings show that, alcohol intake has adverse impact on students’ academic performance through absenteeism, indulgence in examination malpractices and limited study hours. Alcohol consumption make men confident and women accept proposals easily. Also drunk driving was a major cause of accident in Ghana since drunken drivers flout road traffic regulations. It was recommended that, the Motor Traffic Transport Unit of the Ghana Police Service and the Driver Vehicle License Authority should intensify the campaign to curb drunk driving. Drivers found guilty of drunk driving should be banned from driving or have their license withdrawn for three months. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTSWords alone cannot convey our profound indebtedness to our dynamic supervisor, Professor Rowland A. E. Iheanacho for his fatherly tutelage, affability, time and the invaluable support he provided in the course of this work. To just say we appreciate these individuals will be an understatement: Ms. Mary Adomah Yeboah, Mr. Patrick Duncun Reynold (TOR), Mr. Osei Yaw Boa- Korang(Twifo Praso Rural Bank), Mr. Evans K. Acheampong, and Ms. Dorothy Gabben- Mensah (UCC), Mr. Stephen Doh-Fia (Lecturer Department of Educational Foundations). We are really grateful for every assistance you rendered to bring this work to fruition. 1 / 18 To our supportive parents,Mr. Ransford Oti Fenteng, Mr. Benjamin Asare and Ms, Rose Konamah, we say God bless you all for your prayers, care, encouragement, motivation, ideas, thoughtfulness, deeds of kindness and for every helping hand you offered in the spirit of love to make this piece a possibility. Lastly, kudos to all friends and all who contributed in diverse ways to make this work a masterpiece. DEDICATIONThis work is dedicated, with love, to our parents and siblings. PAGEREF _Toc356649042 \h 28Table 13: Do drunken pedestrians cause danger to themselves and other road users? PAGEREF _Toc356649043 \h 28Table 14: Do drunk drivers like speeding? PAGEREF _Toc356649044 \h 29Table 15: Drunken pedestrians do not flout road traffic regulation PAGEREF _Toc356649045 \h 29Table 16: Do drunken drivers drive recklessly? PAGEREF _Toc356649046 \h 30Table 17: Have you watched any alcoholic beverage advert on television before? PAGEREF _Toc356649047 \h 30Table 18: Do television adverts influence you to buy the product? PAGEREF _Toc356649048 \h 31 LIST OF FIGURES TOC \h \z \c Figure Figure 1: Gender PAGEREF _Toc356649237 \h 20Figure 2: Age range PAGEREF _Toc356649238 \h 21 CHAPTER ONEINTRODUCTIONBackground to the study (Bovee, 1992 p. 7) defines advertising as â€Å"a non-personal communication of information usually paid for and persuasive in nature about products, services or ideas by an identified sponsor†. From this definition, one can see that advertisements are placed on purpose. This is a three-tier which comprises of introducing a product, generating new customers and attempting to stimulate and sustain consumer consumption (Bovee, 1992 p. 9). Since the invention of television, it can be classified as one of the most effective carriers of adverts due to its audio-visual qualities and captivating nature. Its effectiveness cannot be over emphasized CITATION Ebb07 \l 1033 (Ebbrecht, 2007). Recently, the adverts of alcoholic beverages on almost all television stations in Ghana have been regular, persuading viewers to purchase such drinks without any recourse. There seems to be no programme on television without a brand of alcohol being a sponsor. Programmes ranging from prime-time news to live shows are all full of these types of sponsors. The names of some drinks have become common in our various homes and every child who has the privilege of watching television can mention not less than two alcoholic beverages advertised. It is also interesting to note that, names of some alcoholic drinks even give an impression of its benefit to the consumer before they are even purchased. Example is, ‘wo ba ada anaa’ when literally translated means ‘is your child asleep’ makes people think when you drink that beverage you can be sexually active. In Ghana majority of people who take alcoholic beverage especially, the distilled or locally manufactured ones use it as an appetizer believing that, you can eat well when it is taken the moment food is ready, though there has not been any study confirming or rejecting this assertion. This phenomenon is locally referred to as ye bu didi thus; we drink to eat, when literally translated. Many people in the country are more concerned about the rise in the consumption of alcoholic beverages, and have attributed this phenomenon to the indiscriminate adverts of alcoholic drinks in the media, especially on all the television stations in the country. They have even speculated that, the increase in road accidents in the country is due to drunk driving. This speculation from the public was confirmed by the Ministry of Roads and Highways in June, 2009 when it issued a report on the increasing rate of road accidents in the country and pointed out drunk driving as one of the topmost causes of road accidents CITATION Myj09 \l 1033 (My joy online , 2009). This led to anti drunk driving campaign where passengers were advised not to board cars of drunken drivers and to report such drivers to the police. The MTTU branch of the Ghana police service, as one of the measures of curbing drunk driving, randomly check the breath of drivers to determine their level of alcohol intake with their equipment known as breath analyzer or drunkometer. Any driver whose level of alcohol intake exceeds certain limit is arrested for legal action. The Food and Drugs Board (FDB) CITATION Foo05 \l 1033 (Board, 2005) had also acted towards curbing this problem by directing all media houses in the country to stop the advertising of 3 / 18 all uncertified alcoholic products. Moreover, the FDB’s guidelines on alcoholic beverage adverts (FDB GL05/AD ALC/1-2005) stated that, â€Å"For every alcohol advert appearing on television, an anti-alcohol advert of equal length must be aired within half an hour of the advert promoting the alcoholic beverage†- but it seems this has been seriously violated over the years. The 2010 Budget Statement delivered in parliament by the Minister of Finance, imposed a 10% â€Å"Ad Valorem† tax on all alcoholic products in the country. In explaining this, the Minister made it clear that the imposition of this tax on alcoholic products was not for its financial benefits to the government but rather a step towards reducing the problem of alcoholism. Pastor (Dr. ) Mensah Otabil, the General Overseer of the International Central Gospel Church (I.C. G. C. ) and the Chancellor of the Central University College is one of the persons to be alarmed at both the rate of alcoholic beverages advertisement in the media especially television and the rate of consumption. CITATION Sam03 \l 1033 (Awuku, 2003) Has argued that, â€Å"If the state can spend billions of Cedis on advertisement urging the youth to keep away from drugs such as cocaine and other prohibited drugs, why can we not use a fraction of such money to warn the youth against the consumption of alcohol? † The above instances mean that, people are dissatisfied about the rate of television advertisement of alcoholic beverages and expect the state to regulate it, thus more specifically to treat alcoholic beverages as it does to cigarette and cocaine so that it can reduce consumption. This means that some people also believe that the state has not done enough to curb the rise in alcoholism and that the problem should be put in the same perspective as any form of drug abuse in the country. This study assesses the effect of television advertisement of alcoholic beverages on consumer behaviour. Statement of the problem In contemporary times, television advertisement has been seen as the most effective mode of advertising because of its audio-visual qualities and captivating nature. Its effectiveness cannot be over emphasised (Ebbrecht, 2007 p. 3). A recent systematic review to assess the impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on future adolescent alcohol use identified thirteen longitudinal studies that followed up a total of over 38,000 young people. Twelve of the thirteen studies concluded an impact of exposure on subsequent alcohol use, including initiation of drinking and heavier drinking amongst existing drinkers, with a dose response relationship in all studies that reported such exposure and analysis. For example, CITATION Ell05 \l 1033 (Ellickson, Collins, Hambarsoomains, amp; McCaffrey, 2005) examined the relationship between a range of advertisement exposures over the course of one year and subsequent drinking among US adolescents aged 12 to 13 years followed-up for at least two years, and assessed whether exposure to a prevention programme mitigated any such relationship. Forty eight percent of 1206 grade 7 non-drinkers consumed alcohol during the previous year at grade 9. The results of the longitudinal studies are consistent with the findings of econometric studies, in which, for example, a meta-analysis of 132 studies which provided 322 estimated advertising elasticities, found a positive impact of advertising on consumption (coefficient, 0. 029), when controlling for alcohol price and income. The recent increase in television advert of alcoholic beverages has led to the increase in the consumption of such products. In Ghana there is influx of adverts of alcoholic beverages on television. These indiscriminate adverts of alcoholic beverages on television have sparked public outcry over the years with some even attributing most of road accidents to such adverts as many people believe that these adverts lead to irresponsible drinking, like drunk driving. These fears of the public gained grounds when a report released by the Ministry of Roads and Highways in June, 2009 on the increasing number of road accidents in the country at the time confirmed drunk driving (alcohol abuse) as one of the topmost causes of road accidents CITATION Myj09 \l 1033 (My joy online , 2009). The situation has prompted the government to reduce the rate of consumption by imposing 10% ‘ad valorem’ tax on all alcoholic products in the 2010 budget statement presented by the Minister of Finance and Economic Planning. 4 / 18. The proliferated television adverts of alcoholic beverages also sparked the FDB to place a ban on alcoholic beverage adverts on television in March, 2007. The Driver Vehicle License Authority (DVLA) has spelt out how drunk drivers should behave, by leaving your car at the point you got drunk and join a public transport home. Due to the aforementioned problems and interventions, it is significant for such a study to be conducted to find out the effect of television advertisement of alcoholic beverages on consumer behaviour. Objectives of the study General objectiveThe overall objective of the study was to assess the effect of television advertisement of alcoholic beverages on consumer behaviour. Specific objectivesTo determine whether alcoholic beverage adverts leads to increase consumption. To examine if consumption of alcoholic beverages affect students academic performance. To determine if the consumption of such drinks promote to flirting. To determine how consumption of alcoholic drinks leads to road accident. Research questionsThe study poses and attempts to answer the following questions: What effect does alcohol consumption have on students’ academic performance? Does alcoholic beverage consumption promote flirting? Does consumption alcoholic beverage lead to road accident? Does television adverts on alcoholic beverages lead to increase consumption? Significance of the study Since advertising is important to the promotion of goods and services in today’s competitive market, the implications of this study will help students to know the impact of alcoholic beverage consumption on their academic performance. The government in performing its role of formulating policies and enacting laws to regulate alcoholic beverages adverts in the country can use this document as a reference guide. Finally, the study will be useful to researchers who will in future undertake similar study as it will serve as a source of reference. Scope of the study The scope of the study covers the theoretical and the geographical dimensions of the study. This mainly covers the concepts of advertising, alcoholic beverages and consumer behaviour. The effect of television advertisement of alcoholic beverages could be viewed from many perspectives but for the purpose of this study, it will concentrate mainly on whether advertising leads to increase consumption and consumption affect students’ academic performance, promote flirting and causes road accidents. The geographical scope covers people in cape coast precisely University of Cape Coast students who are 18 years and above. Limitations The study is not devoid of challenges which might affect the result in one way or the other. There is the issue of time constraint since the period within which this research must be completed for submission was less than one academic year. Also, there were financial constraints because there was no financial assistance to aid in the study. This situation forced us to limit the geographical area of the study to only University of Cape Coast which forms a small part of the entire geographical area. Also the number of questionnaires to be used for the study was very few. Organisation of study This study has been organised in five chapters. Chapter one covers various areas of the introduction which include the background to the study, the statement of the research problem, the objectives of the study, research questions, the significance of the study as well as the scope and the organization of the study. Chapter two covers the review of related studies. Chapter three is the methodology used for the study which comprises of research design, population, sample and sampling techniques or methods, data collection methods and instruments, as well as data analysis. Chapter four covers the discussions of the findings and presentations with chapter five covering the summary, conclusions and recommendations of the study. CHAPTER TWOLITERATURE REVIEWIntroduction In this chapter, various literatures are reviewed to give an insight into the present study. This chapter will be written under the following sub-titles: concept of television advertising, television advertising and consumption of alcoholic beverages, alcohol and students academic performance, alcohol consumption and sexual risk 5 / 18 taking. Concept of Television Advertising Television advertising is a span of television programming produced and paid for by an organization or an individual, which conveys a message, typically to market a product or service. Advertising revenue provides a significant portion of the funding for most privately owned television networks. The vast majority of television advertisements today consist of brief advertising spots, ranging in length from a few seconds to several minutes. Advertisements of this sort have been used to promote a wide variety of goods, services and ideas since the dawn of television. (Health, 2009) asserted that, television engagement is mainly of the subconscious kind and it is effective at building strong brands, due to the low attention to television adverts, the emotional stimuli are more effective because the viewer does not notice and therefore counter-argues against them. (Unsal amp; Yuksel, 1984) state that advertised products generally are to find more favour in consumers’ eyes than unadvertised ones. (Galbraith, 1958) examined that advertising as manipulating the public by creating artificial needs and wants. He did much to popularize the understanding of economics and society. Aspects of advertising that received emphasis in other fields is persuasion (psychology) regulation (political science) gender, race and class (sociology, cultural studies, and culture (anthropology). (Williams, L. M, amp; H, 2003) focus on the institutionalization and professionalization of advertising that is its commercial functions and its persuasive force. As a social critic, he locates advertising in a social context. For him, advertising belongs to a particular historical moment. It is a part of modern capitalist society, and it distinguishes it from attention- grabbing devices in non-capitalist societies in other times and places. For Williams, advertising cannot be decoupled from the way it comes into being and the work it does in society. He drew attention to sponsorship of art in modern times. His definition said advert is the official art of capitalist society. (Diamond, July,1972) defined advertising as a form of communication intended to persuade its viewers, readers or listeners to take some action. It usually includes the name of a product or service and how that product or service could benefit the consumer, persuade potential customers to purchase or consume that particular brand. Commercial advertisers seek to generate increased consumption of their products or services through branding, which involves the repetition of an image or product name in an effort to associate related qualities with the brand in the mind of consumers. According to CITATION Dar09 \l 1033 (Darrin, 2009), television depends on advertising as a way of making profit and to cover up the cost of the shows being aired. Conversely, television has been and is now a good medium for letting advertisers reach a large audience to promote and raise awareness of their products. Despite the availability of other medium of advertising, television remains one of the most popular and cost effective avenues for reaching the advertisers goal. There are a lot of reasons behind every advert which include the following: to create awareness of the existence of a product, to persuade potential targets to buy the product, encourage the public to buy more of the product than previously, to convince the public that its product is superior to other products, create image and goodwill, building up confidence in a business, identifies a business with the goods and service it offer. Forms of Television Advertising There are various forms which can be effectively used in advertising. Mentioned below are the various forms of television advertising. Announcement: in this form, the announcer appears before the camera and conveys the message of the product or service of the advertiser. Examples include: announcements regarding the extended date of sale, gift scheme, concession rates. Slides: this is where only the visual image of the commercial is presented through slides or cards on television, which does not have motion and sound. This form is generally found in local and regional programmes. Here the pictures of the product being advertised appear at the bottom of the 6 / 18 television. Demonstration: this form of television advertising shows the skills through dramatised demonstration to emphasise how a particular product works. The demonstrator or announcer gives explanation on how the product is being used. Advertisements of products such as detergents and blood tonics widely use this form. Dramatized: it is the commonly used form of advertisement which is more persuasive and entertaining in nature. Advertisements of the importance of social issues like girl child education and immunization use this form of television advertising. Animated commercial: this form of television commercial involves cartoon technique. It is more time consuming and this makes it very expensive because the cost of an advert depends on its length. For instance the advertisements on family planning used this technique. Sponsorship: this is where a sponsor (a person who purchases a given amount of broadcast time or advertising space to tell you why you should buy his or her product. There are two types of means to get the sponsorer’s message across: direct and indirect. This form of television advertising is very common in Ghana because every programme being aired on our television station has more than one sponsor, the sponsors products are advertised once or twice during the show. Television advertising and Alcoholic Beverage Consumption. The potential underlying mechanisms for a direct link between alcohol advert portrayals and individual alcohol use are related to norm setting, habit formation and imitation. First, movies, soap operas and advertisements mostly portray substances in a positive way by using prototypes of the â€Å"ideal† person in an appealing context CITATION Eve98 \l 1033 (Everett, R. L, amp; J. L, 1998). Similar findings have been found elsewhere, such as CITATION McC08 \l 1033 (McCreano, Barnes, Borell, Kaiwai, amp; Gregory, 2008) who interviewed youth and found that alcohol advertising was often enjoyed. These advertisements established a climate or association that alcohol is cool, exciting and fun. CITATION McC08 \l 1033 (McCreano, Barnes, Borell, Kaiwai, amp; Gregory, 2008) concluded that alcohol advertising creates an environment which maintains unhealthy expectations, norms and behaviours around alcohol consumption. Secondly, when people associate a specific cue or event to a specific behavioural pattern, example, watching an advert where the intake of alcohol led to admired behaviour like bravery. In essence, the alcohol cues imbedded in this specific context might lead to direct responses thus craving and subsequent alcohol use, especially when this link becomes automatic. Also, alcohol cues in adverts and watching characters consuming alcohol on screen might lead to drinking through the mechanism of imitation. (Quigley amp; Collins, 1999) conducted a study which strongly supported the assumption that when people are in company of a drinker, the drinking pace of the other affects individual drinking rates. According to (Quigley amp; Collins, 1999) there are at least two reasons why this effect occurs: direct imitation and identification. There is a great deal of evidence from neuroscience and psychology showing that people automatically and unconsciously are wired to take over each others behaviour. When we observe someone perform a certain action, the pre–motor representation of that action is activated in our brains as we are about to perform that action ourselves. The presentation of alcohol in the media has received both scrutiny and criticism. As a result of this, researchers begun to explore the effect of such adverts on consumption. Correlation study indicates that media exposure is associated with the attitudes, perceptions and behavior of young people. A study conducted by (Turker, 1985), involving high school males indicated that viewers who watched a great deal of television had significantly higher levels of alcohol use per month than did viewers who watched comparatively less television. (McCreano, Barnes, Borell, Kaiwai, amp; Gregory, 2008) also conducted a study to find the link between television viewing and alcohol consumption. The study followed participants over several years. Respondents were queried about their television viewing habits at ages thirteen and fifteen and their alcohol consumption at age eighteen. They found that, the more television the female subjects watched overall at ages thirteen 7 / 18 and fifteen, the greater were their reported alcohol beverage consumption at age eighteen. For males there was no significant relationship between viewing at ages thirteen and fifteen and consumption at age eighteen. (Grube amp; Wallack, 1994) interviewed fifth and sixth grade students about their awareness of alcohol advertising and their perceptions, attitudes, and behavioural intentions regarding alcohol consumption. They reported that the more aware students were of alcohol advertisements, the more positive their beliefs about alcohol drinking. More positive beliefs about alcohol were associated with indications of likelihood to drink as an adult. Alcohol and students’ academic performance Cognitive and learning impairments from chronic heavy exposure to alcohol can arise from the neuro-toxic effects of ethanol on vulnerable hippocampus and limbic structures. Research findings from animal models and observational human studies have shown that persistent alcohol abuse can result in a decrease in the overall volume of the hippocampus, the area responsible for long term learning and memory. Cell volumes have been found to be consistently smaller in alcohol abusing adolescents and, perhaps unsurprisingly, the degree of hippocampal damage increases with the number of years of alcohol abuse. In one observational research study cited by CITATION Zei05 \l 1033 (Zeigler, C. C, Yoast, B. D, amp; McCaffree, 2005) 38 adolescent alcohol abusers were compared with 69 non alcohol users on neuropsychological tests. The former scored consistently less well in verbal IQ, spelling and reading tests compared to the latter CITATION Lov04 \l 1033 (Loveland- Cherry, 2005) reports that school attachment and receiving good grades have been associated with less adolescent alcohol use, while absenteeism and poor grades are associated with early initiation and increased levels of alcohol use. CITATION Per02 \l 1033 (Perkins, 2002) found that male students who drank more than 5 drinks, and female students that drank more than 4 drinks, in a session one or two times in a 2 week period were over three times more likely to report getting behind in school work compared with more moderate drinkers. When the drinking frequency increased to 3 times in a 2 week period, they were more than eight times more likely to report this problem. CITATION Ber87 \l 1033 (Berkowitz amp; Perkins, 1987) found that women students were as likely as men to experience impaired academic performance due to alcohol. Most reviews which looked at educational performance related to American college students and the majority evidence points to the fact that the association between academic performance and college drinking is inconclusive. A number of reviews have discussed the methodological limitations of studies that investigate the relationship between alcohol and academic performance. Much of the cited evidence for a relationship comes from cross sectional studies which cannot ascribe a causal link. However, there is emerging evidence from longitudinal studies which suggests that binge drinking may impair academic performance over time. Nevertheless, it is noted that most college students who drink go on to lead successful lives. Indeed CITATION Gil02 \l 1033 (Gill, 2002)  argues that alcohol may be a scapegoat for other factors that may limit poor academic performance. CITATION Roy11 \l 1033 (Royce, 2011) in United States argued that the amount of alcohol consumed by students correlate with their grade point average. Thus, there is a negative relationship between alcohol consumption and students academic performance, as the more alcoholic beverage taken by students, the lesser time available for studies or academic work. CITATION Wil03 \l 1033 (Williams, L. M, amp; H, 2003)  .