ou’re very macho and very cool and very tough if you can drink a lot” (qtd. in Olinger 1D). But how many children are drinking? A survey of 13,800 elementary students found that many children tried alcohol before they finished fourth grade, three in four middle school students reported alcohol was easy to get and, one in four high school students admitted to drinking (qtd. in Olinger 1D). Nationally, 50 percent of twelfth-graders admitted drinking alcohol over a thirty-day period (qtd. in Sowell 19A). And, [a]t least 90 percent of college students drink [alcohol] (qtd. in Benenson 35). Those opposed to these views argue that developmental studies generally pinpoint peer pressure to pre and early adolescents, thus older children are not subject to this pressure, and this is not a cause of underage drinking. However, peer pressure is not the issue. These children are not forced into drinking by their peers. They simply correlate drinking with acceptance, thus they drink to be accepted. Many experts view drinking as a natural occurrence for children, they state, “They [children] are simply testing their limits” (Benenson 36). If this is how our children view alcohol, they are viewing it in all the wrong ways. We must help them understand that alcohol will not help them ‘fit in,’ it will only hurt them much sooner than later. Trying to fit in is not the only problem that causes underage alcohol consumption; advertising aimed at underage drinkers also contributes to the predicament. When children see products associated with fun images, cartoons, or animals, they pay attention. Manufactures and advertising companies play, and pay, on this marketing fact. Multimillion-dollar licensing deals between filmmakers and manufactures promote products, including cigarettes and alcohol, to kids (Selling 518). Unfortunately, when cigarette and alcohol manufactures plug their products in films, children st...
