The Report

The nation is facing an epidemic of underage drinking, astronomical costs of alcoholism, and a chronically underfunded health care system fueled by alcohol-related problems.

It is a tragic irony, then, that a handful of major public transit systems still allow public advertising of alcohol – on bus shelters, around kiosks, inside buses and rail cars, on street “furniture” and even as entire bus wraps. This report is based on a survey of the alcohol advertising policies of 25 public transit agencies nationwide. In it we describe which agencies have the best policies and which have the most room for improvement.

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Summary of Findings

• A full 75% of responding public transit agencies have policies that prohibit alcohol advertising.
  
  
• Only 10% of responding public transit agencies have policies
  that claim to protect children, and yet still allow alcohol advertising.
  
  
• The New York and Boston public transit agencies lag far behind national trends that protect vulnerable children from alcohol advertising.
  
  
• Major cities and metropolitan areas like Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington D.C., San Diego, Philadelphia, and the entire San Francisco Bay Area do not allow alcohol advertising on transit.
  
  
• San Francisco leads the way in tough enforcement in its new contract with Clear Channel, requiring $5000 per day per violation of advertising codes. Both San Francisco and Chicago give a two-day warning.
  
  
• Seattle uses model language for controlling direct advertising and subtle methods of product placement and promotion.
  

Why Focus on Public Transit?

In considering local strategies for restricting alcohol ads to which youth are most likely to be exposed, public transit represents an important area for study and public policy action.

Transit advertising is a particularly attractive medium to advertisers, as evidenced by research from New York that describes transit passengers:

Participants in focus groups in New York City have said they welcome advertising in subway cars because the advertisements help them avoid uncomfortable eye contact with other riders and provide something to look at during trips.

Advertising on public transit can take many forms. These include, for buses, exterior, interior, wraps, stops or shelters; for trains, interior, platforms, branded cars or stations, various parts of stations; and for any property, ads on maps, tickets, fare cards, and even transfers. With advancing technology, some agencies have started to use the walls of tunnels to create “moving picture” ads.