According to the study, adolescents who more often viewed prominent beer advertising in stores were more likely to begin drinking than those adolescents who viewed fewer of these displays. The study also found that adolescents who had already started drinking increased their use of alcohol by a greater amount the more ads they saw in magazines and at sporting and music event beer concession stands.

The study tracked 3,111 South Dakota youth in the seventh to ninth grades.

While the study did not find any evidence that television beer ads lead to adolescent drinking or increased alcohol consumption, the authors advised that more research into television advertising is required.

Additional information about the RAND study can be found at http://www.rand.org.

You can learn more about alcohol advertising and youth by visiting the National Institute on Media and the Family's Web site at http://www.mediafamily.org/facts/facts_alcohol.shtml.