Surgeon General Says: Stop Marketing Alcohol To The Under-Aged

The U.S. Surgeon General's Office is asking advertisers to stop marketing to college-aged, and assumingly underaged kids.

While falling short of calling for new legislation banning such advertising, the Surgeon General has called for an end to alcohol advertising in college publications, alcohol-company sponsored college events and a voluntary cutback on billboards in an effort to curb underage drinking. In addition, the SGO asked the entertainment and media industries not to glamorize underage alcohol use in films and on TV.

From Adweek:

"Research shows that young people who start drinking before the age of 15 are five times more likely to have alcohol-related problems later in life," said acting surgeon general Kenneth Moritsugu, in a statement. "Too many Americans consider underage drinking a rite of passage to adulthood."

The report, developed with the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, said there are 11 million underage drinkers in the U.S., and more than 7 million "binge drinkers."