Superbowl XLIV

Well, Superbowl 44—along with all of its hype and overconsumption—is finally over. What do the numbers bring us on this Tuesday after the Big Game?

325,500,000: Gallons of beer drank by Americans on Superbowl Sunday (source).

100,000,000: The number of estimated viewers of Super Bowl XLIV (source).

80: The percentage of the general public that believes that alcohol advertising influences youth to drink alcoholic beverages (Source: Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, Executive Summary of Findings of Research Study of the Public Opinion Concerning Warning Labels on Containers of Alcoholic Beverages (Washington, DC: BATF, 1988))

60: The percentage of US households that tuned into the game (source).

43: The percentage of 18-24 year olds who watch the Super Bowl (source)

10: The number of times an alcohol ad has won the USA Today Superbowl Ad Meter contest. For the past two years, however, the winners have been snack foods instead of alcohol!

10: The number of alcohol commercials that aired during the game (source: staff count)

3: The age of a local dj’s child who announced, after watching a commercial, “I love beer!” (source: 2/8/10 WJBQ97.9 morning show)

2: The number of winners of the 2nd Annual Free the Bowl Contest. See winners here.

1: Anheuser Busch InBev was once again the biggest advertiser during this year’s Superbowl. They purchased five minutes of advertising time (source), at an estimated cost of $27 million (source).

For more information about alcohol marketing and youth, check out CAMY and the Marin Institute.

Prevent Underage Drinking

It’s hard to know just what to do about underage drinking.

The environment around a young person is a powerful influence in whether they choose to drink—or not.

And youth are less likely to drink if…

· Alcohol is really hard to get.

· They feel like adults in their community would disapprove.

· They believe their parents would disapprove.

· They feel like their friends and peers would think it’s uncool.

· They believe they’d get caught, either by their parents or by the police.

What is Straight Up?

Straight Up is a youth activity guide to prevent underage drinking. The activities in the guide aim to engage youth in creating permanent community change, rather than focusing on youth behavior.

How does it work?

Straight Up is organized like a textbook, with short activities and worksheets.

If you're in Portland, Maine: 21 Reasons staff can come do an activity with your class or youth group. Or you can implement activities on your own and apply for a minigrant from 21 Reasons.

If you're outside of Portland, Maine: Keep checking the 21 Reasons website. Straight Up will likely be available statewide soon.

FMI: Jen Hodsdon 21reasons@mcd.org or 207-773-7737

Teen Drinking and Brain Damage

If you knew that you could prevent brain damage and school problems for your kid, would you act? A new study out says that there might be something pretty simple you can do: don’t let your underage kids drink.

There’s a common myth among parents that letting your kids drink under your supervision is better than not knowing where they are, if they’ll be driving, and so on. But a new study conducted by researchers at the University of California, San Diego, found a difference between the brains of teens who drank and those who didn’t.

The study started when none of the teen subjects had ever had alcohol. Over the next few years, however, some of the teens began to drink. Those that did drink were often bingeing (4-5 drinks a night) two or three nights a month.

The binge drinkers did worse on memory tests; binge-drinking boys also did worse on tests of attention, while the binge-drinking girls were worse when their spatial reasoning was tested.

What’s especially surprising is that the damage shows up so quickly. Just two of those “supervised” parties a month – approximately the same rate that the teens in the study were drinking – could potentially lead to brain damage. The study says that the performance of the non-drinkers to the binge drinkers can be compared to a whole grade point: like “the difference between

an A and a B”.

While the study does note that more research needs to be done to find out if the damage is reversible, it’s hard to imagine that it’s a risk a parent would be willing to take. And why make the complicated and difficult teen years harder?

So what can you do? Share this information with other parents. We know that it can be hard to talk about underage drinking with the parents of your child’s friends—but we think that preventing brain damage and school trouble is great motivation. Talk to other parents about the rules you set in your home, and find out their rules as well.

The story was featured on NPR on January 25^th.

For more information, visit us at www.21reasons.org. We even have a resource section just for parents.

Positive Messaging for Prevention

How do you get kids to behave in a certain way while keeping them feeling good about themselves? It’s a tricky situation for parents and mentors. Always correcting a child’s behavior by telling them that they’re wrong may not be very helpful. A recent post to the Portland Public Schools’ Listserv reminded us of this excellent advice:

If the coach says "Don't miss," the kicker hears two negatives, "don't" and "miss." Thinking about avoiding the negatives, the kicker sees the goal posts or the edges of failure. Instead, suggests Jimmie, the coach should say, "Make the kick." Now the kicker looks right down the middle and the goal posts seem to get wider. Odds are now better the kicker will indeed make the kick to win the game….Parents to toddlers walking near puddles, instead of "Don't get your feet wet," how about "Keep your feet dry." Source

But research shows that youth are far less likely to drink alcohol if they believe their parents think it would be “very wrong.”

So how can parents get this message across in a positive way?

Maybe the solution is to put the primary emphasis on the things that ARE expected: do your best in school, protect your brain and your body, be kind and considerate of others, be truthful about what you’re doing and who you’re doing it with, go to parties where parents are present and no alcohol is available to youth, be home by curfew. Then, within that context, list some of the things that would interfere—such as drinking alcohol before age 21.

Enforcement works

According to WGME13, Portland Police handed out citations to two bars this week--both involving visibly intoxicated persons.

Mathews Pub was cited for serving a visibly intoxicated patron, and Downtown Lounge was cited for letting visibly intoxicated people into the bar.

We would like to commend Portland PD for continuing to enforce liquor laws, especially those regarding intoxicated people and, of course, underage drinking (see our recent blog post).

It’s good to see publicity about this kind of enforcement, especially since teens are four times more likely to drink if they don’t think they will be caught by police (2008 MYDAUS).

And we hope that bars are learning more about not serving to already intoxicated people – especially since, under the Maine Liquor Liability Act, bartenders can be sued if a visibly intoxicated person (or minor) hurts someone else. A bartender or owner can be held liable for $350,000 in damages and UNLIMITED medical expenses.

It’s pretty clear to us that it’s not worth the risk to provide alcohol for a minor, or serve someone who’s already drunk.

Parents Connecting for Alcohol-Free Youth

This fall, the Maine Office of Substance Abuse (OSA) is launching a new resource co-developed with 21 Reasons and Maine’s Environmental Substance Abuse Prevention Center (MESAP).

“Connecting for Alcohol-Free Youth: A Parent Discussion – Facilitator’s Guide” is an innovative tool to help empower parents to prevent underage drinking. Check it out here!

The guide provides step-by-step instruction for hosting and facilitating small parent discussions, using a format inspired by the “Tupperware” model. Each discussion is meant to be friendly and relaxed, held in a home or a similarly comfortable community setting—for example, a local coffee shop or a meeting room in the public library. While designed primarily for parents of 5th- 8th graders, these discussions are appropriate for parents with younger children as well as older teenagers.

Geoffrey Miller, Associate Director of OSA, says:

“These discussions are designed to help you provide local parents with an opportunity to connect with other parents in a way that establishes shared monitoring strategies to prevent underage drinking.

“We are very excited about this new model, and look forward to seeing it carried out across the state. Success stories from the piloted communities are truly inspiring: One of the parent groups found the meeting so valuable that they formed a parenting group; many signed on to do more meetings; some were trained as facilitators; and others continued working on this initiative by becoming involved in their local community coalition. This is what we would like to see happen in communities across Maine.”

The Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA) has approved a change in format for Maine’s 2010 Preventing Underage Drinking Meetings. Rather than using the traditional town hall meeting format, Maine community-based organizations that participate in this initiative will be using “Connecting For Alcohol-Free Youth” in a small-meeting format with parents.

In fact, SAMHSA was so impressed with the discussion guide and this concept that they requested to offer the guide as a national resource!

We are so excited to assist SAMHSA and OSA in their efforts to prevent underage drinking; we hope that the upcoming parent meetings will inspire our communities here in Maine and across the country.

Parent reports underage drinking party

Over the weekend, Portland police broke up an underage drinking party, thanks to the report of a parent whose teen was involved:

Charges stem from Portland teen party

PORTLAND – Police broke up a party during the weekend involving 35 to 40 teenagers, mostly from Deering and Portland high schools. Police were called to 16 Hope Ave. at 11:50 p.m. Saturday, after the parent of a teenager who had been drinking at the party reported it, police said …Police issued a court summons to a 16-year-old for furnishing the alcohol. [A father and son] were ordered to appear in court on charges of furnishing a place for minors to drink.

Reporting a party can be difficult choice for a parent, and we appreciate this parent’s decision to prioritize the health and safety of the young people involved. It’s up to each one of us to help make sure youth are safe, and we all are responsible for reporting dangerous situations—like underage drinking parties.

To those who are wondering, “What’s the big deal as long as they’re not driving?” we would point out that every year, alcohol contributes to more youth deaths than all other illegal drugs combined, and only 1/3 of those deaths are from car crashes.

The reality is that 2/3 of underage drinking deaths are the result of suicides, homicides, and injuries like alcohol poisoning, drowning, burns, falls, and suffocation. And there is collateral damage as well: underage drinking also increases youth risk of depression, addiction, sexual assault, teen pregnancy, school failure, and delinquency.

There is nothing to celebrate about that.

If you hear of an underage drinking party, report it to your local police department. A list of numbers for Southern Maine police departments is available here.

More tips for parental monitoring are available on our Parent Resources page.