VICTORY! BART Reverse Course on Alcohol Ads

Congratulations to all the Bay Area groups involved in convincing the BART Board of Directors to rethink its alcohol advertising policy!

The overwhelming turnout and unmistakable research caused several Directors changed their original votes, resulting in a 7-2 reversal of the Board’s September decision. Perhaps BART Director Gail Murray said it best: ``There are plenty of places that advertise alcohol. I just don't think that public transit, funded by the public, should be one of them.''

Surprisingly, no one from the advertising company, CBS Outdoor, came to argue their case.They may not have wanted to respond to the blatant violation of their contract that Marin Institute brought to the Board's attention (see image below). To prove our point that the alcohol industry will bend the rules at every opportunity, the image shown here was presented at the meeting, in poster size.

• While some board members said the effects of advertising on underage drinking are unproven, there is a wealth of research showing the connection.
  
• This week the American Academy of Pediatrics released an in-depth report on the effects of advertising on children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) is alarmed that exposure to as many as 40,000 ads on television alone may contribute significantly to obesity, poor nutrition, cigarette AND alcohol abuse.
  
• Findings from a January 2006 study, published in the AMA’s Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, confirm that the more alcohol advertising young people see, the more they drink— and that rates of underage drinking are higher in communities with more alcohol advertising.

Big Alcohol knows that advertising works. Why else would it spend $5 billion dollars on advertising and product promotions each year?