Portrayal of Alcohol Brands Popular Among Underage Youth on YouTube: A Content Analysis

We characterized leading YouTube videos featuring alcohol brand references and examined video characteristics associated with each brand and video category.

We systematically captured the 137 most relevant and popular videos on YouTube portraying alcohol brands that are popular among underage youth. We used an iterative process to codebook development. We coded variables within domains of video type, character sociodemographics, production quality, and negative and positive associations with alcohol use. All variables were double coded, and Cohen's kappa was greater than .80 for all variables except age, which was eliminated.

There were 96,860,936 combined views for all videos. The most common video type was "traditional advertisements," which comprised 40% of videos. Of the videos, 20% were "guides" and 10% focused on chugging a bottle of distilled spirits. While 95% of videos featured males, 40% featured females. Alcohol intoxication was present in 19% of videos. Aggression, addiction, and injuries were uncommonly identified (2%, 3%, and 4%, respectively), but 47% of videos contained humor. Traditional advertisements represented the majority of videos related to Bud Light (83%) but only 18% of Grey Goose and 8% of Hennessy videos. Intoxication was most present in chugging demonstrations (77%), whereas addiction was only portrayed in music videos (22%). Videos containing humor ranged from 11% for music-related videos to 77% for traditional advertisements.

YouTube videos depicting the alcohol brands favored by underage youth are heavily viewed, and the majority are traditional or narrative advertisements. Understanding characteristics associated with different brands and video categories may aid in intervention development.