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Alcohol companies are marketing to younger drinkers through ad campaigns with more social media, according to a report released last week.

The report, put out by the Center for Digital Democracy and the Berkeley Media Studies Group, said in one example, Heineken targeted Puerto Rican youth in a new digital marketing campaign. The end result allowed members of an online world to buy virtual furnishings for digital apartments, among other things, through “heikens”, instead of real-world money. This digital money was earned by playing games on the company’s website or on Facebook. The report said the company ended the campaign with an estimated response of 10,000 new Heineken consumers.

CDD Director Jeff Chester, who co-authored the report, said more people should be made aware of this issue.

“The recent privacy backlash against Facebook and Google Buzz, for example, illustrates how the issue of digital marketing and the need for safeguards is becoming a more visible and populist issue,” Chester said.

Karen Farris, a spokeswoman for the Missouri Youth Adult Alliance said underage consumers are frequently exposed to alcohol industry advertising.

“The alcohol industry spends billions of dollars promoting their products to people under 21,” she said. “Youth are exposed to apparel, music and advertisements.”

Rather than directly reaching out to minors, alcohol companies and advertisers frequently advertise their products with images of men and women who appear to be in their mid-twenties. Along with playing a chart-topping tune to play in the background of the commercial, the messages promote good times, humor and friendship.

The reach of the Internet also creates problems in terms of monitoring an alcohol company’s efforts to target a younger audience. Having such a broad marketing platform makes enforcing laws and other legal implications on an alcohol company that much more difficult.

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