A seismic booze-filled shift is taking place in the most popular American movies. Alcohol is prominent in 87 percent of the top box-office movies, according to a new study by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
The study, which is called “Trends in alcohol brand placements in top U.S. movies, 1996-2015,” was straightforward: Watch the top 100 movies of the year, count up the drinks, and note if the drinks were branded or not. What they found was incredible. Every year, alcohol brand placement increased around 5 percent, and at the end of 10 years, it increased a total of 92 percent.
The push was mainly done by three brands: Budweiser, Miller, and Heineken. One third of all alcohol brand placements (44 percent of movies had specific brand placements) had one of those three brands. Budweiser is basically in every Adam Sandler movie, which admittedly aren’t the top box office movies, but serve as a good example. Sandler’s movie That’s My Boy was called “a 114 minute long commercial for Budweiser” by Brand Channel. The big bucks buys the big spots.
Then there’s every Pirates of the Caribbean movie, which are basically just rum-filled quest for more rum. Alcohol is being normalized through the movies — especially the brands that can afford to be featured in Hollywood.
