Underage Instagram Users Likely to Be Exposed to Celebrity-owned Alcohol Brand Advertising

An Australian study examining the advertising of celebrity-owned alcohol brands on Instagram found that 98% of sampled alcohol-brand posts were visible to an account simulating a 15-year-old despite safeguards to protect minors. The study, titled, “Celebrity-Owned Alcohol Brands Promoted on Social Media,” published in the March 2026 Pediatrics (published online Feb. 9), examined more than 85,000 Instagram posts from 112 celebrities who own alcohol brands between Jan. 1, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2023. Over a third (37.5%) of celebrities explicitly referenced their brand in their biography. Three-fourths of celebrities studied mentioned their own brand at least once on publicly available posts during the study period. The study found that 3.4% of identified posts (2,933 posts) mentioned a celebrity’s alcohol brand, but only 51 of 2,933 posts included clear advertising disclosure, such as #ad, ‘sponsored post’, or ‘paid partnership.’ Researchers randomly selected 660 of the alcohol-branded posts and found that 646 of them were accessible to the simulated account created for the study. Authors expressed concern over this visibility, pointing to the perception of celebrity posts being authentic or aspirational. The alcohol-branded posts received high levels of engagement but collected about 28% fewer likes and 26% fewer comments than non-alcohol-branded related posts. Authors suggest that current age-gating and paid advertising disclosure rules on social media are insufficient to prevent youth exposure. They call for stronger government regulations to protect teens. Regardless of whether influencers promote their own or another company’s alcohol products, alcohol-branded posts should be clearly disclosed as advertising and hidden from users below the minimum legal purchasing age.

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The American Academy of Pediatrics is an organization of 67,000 primary care pediatricians, pediatric medical subspecialists and pediatric surgical specialists dedicated to the health, safety and well-being of infants, children, adolescents and young adults.