Dispelling the myth: advertising bans and alcohol consumption
John C. Luik
INTRODUCTION
There is an unfortunate tendency in American public policy debates to attempt to solve long-standing, complex, and multi-dimensional problems with simple solutions that resemble political slogans or sound-bites more than serious attempts to deal with difficult issues. Although this tendency is found across the policy spectrum it is particularly obvious in policy debates that involve advertising. Because of its ubiquity and its allegedly extraordinary powers of persuasion, restricting advertising is often seen as an obvious, simple, “cost-free” and uncontroversial solution, especially for problems involving health.
A number of...