Creating intoxigenic environments: Marketing alcohol to young people in Aotearoa New Zealand
Loading...
Date
2008-09
DOI
Open Access Location
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier
Rights
Abstract
Alcohol consumption among young people in New Zealand is on the rise. Given
the broad array of acute and chronic harms that arise from this trend, it is a major
cause for alarm and it is imperative that we improve our knowledge of key drivers
of youth drinking. Changes wrought by the neoliberal political climate of
deregulation that characterised the last two decades in many countries including
Aotearoa New Zealand have transformed the availability of alcohol to young
people. Commercial development of youth alcohol markets has seen the
emergence of new environments, cultures and practices around drinking and
intoxication but the ways in which these changes are interpreted and taken up is
not well understood.
This paper reports findings from a qualitative research project investigating the
meaning-making practices of young people in New Zealand in response to alcohol
marketing. Research data included group interviews with a range of Maori and
Pakeha young people at three time periods. Thematic analyses of the youth data
on usages of marketing materials indicate naturalisation of tropes of alcohol
intoxication. We show how marketing is used and enjoyed in youth discourses
creating and maintaining what we refer to as intoxigenic social environments. The
implications are considered in light of the growing exposure of young people to
alcohol marketing in a discussion of strategies to manage and mitigate its impacts
on behaviour and consumption.
Description
Keywords
Marketing, Alcohol, Youth, Intoxication, Policy, New Zealand
Citation
McCreanor, T., Moewaka Barnes, H., Kaiwai, H., Borell, S., & Gregory, A. (2008). Creating intoxigenic environments: Marketing alcohol to young people in Aotearoa New Zealand. Social Science & Medicine, 67(6), 938-946. doi: DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2008.05.027