From Kensington Research Inst and CNN: Alcohol-related content of animated cartoons

Front Public Health. 2013 Mar 28;1:2. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2013.00002.

Alcohol-related content of animated cartoons: a historical perspective.

Klein H1, Shiffman KS2.

Author information

• 1Kensington Research Institute Silver Spring, MD, USA.
• 2Cable News Network Atlanta, GA, USA.

Abstract

This study, based on a stratified (by decade of production) random sample of 1,221 animated cartoons and 4,201 characters appearing in those cartoons, seeks to determine the prevalence of alcohol-related content; how, if at all, the prevalence changed between 1930 and 1996 (the years spanned by this research); and the types of messages that animated cartoons convey about beverage alcohol and drinking in terms of the characteristics that are associated with alcohol use, the contexts in which alcohol is used in cartoons, and the reasons why cartoon characters purportedly consume alcohol. Approximately 1 cartoon in 11 was found to contain alcohol-related content, indicating that the average child or adolescent viewer is exposed to approximately 24 alcohol-related messages each week just from the cartoons that he/she watches. Data indicated that the prevalence of alcohol-related content declined significantly over the years. Quite often, alcohol consumption was shown to result in no effects whatsoever for the drinker, and alcohol use often occurred when characters were alone. Overall, mixed, ambivalent messages were provided about drinking and the types of characters that did/not consume alcoholic beverages.