Advertising Psychoactive Substances: Targeting the Youth

Abstract

Psychoactive substances have been distributed for centuries, but advertising these substances is a relatively new phenomenon. While marketing is an effective way to increase profit margins, advertising substances like nicotine, alcohol, and caffeine, may be harmful-specifically to minors. According to the National Cancer Institute, psychoactive substances, also referred to as psychotropic substances, can be defined as “A drug or other substance that affects how the brain works and causes changes in mood, awareness, thoughts, feelings, or behavior” (NCI, 2015). In the past few decades, many large companies have realized that younger generations play a vital role in their profits and so these companies have begun targeting adolescence through their marketing techniques, creating an ethical debate. Sandra Calvert, a professor at Georgetown University, stated that “Children view approximately 40,000 advertisements per year” (Calvert, 2008, p. 206). Due to the human brain not being fully developed until a person’s late twenties, juveniles are more gullible to buy products or substances they see in advertisements, even if they are detrimental to one’s health. Many younglings only see what the advertisements want them to: positive alterations in mood or perception from ingesting nicotine, alcohol, or caffeine, but not the mental and psychical health problems, poor peer relationships, or academic difficulties these substances can cause.