According to Common Sense Media, teens spent more than seven hours every day entertaining themselves with screen-based media in 2019. That figure doesn’t include time spent using screens for school or homework.

All that time on screens watching videos, scrolling social media, listening to music, and more, means that young people today are bombarded with ads attempting to influence them to want or purchase certain products. In fact, when adolescents are exposed to ads for beer, it affects which brands teens are aware of, like, and try.

While we at Prevention Action Alliance focus heavily on the influence of alcohol advertising, teens are exposed to all manner of ads, including ads for alcohol, tobacco products, politicians or political issues, fake news, and more. Teens need help making sense of all these ads, and many of them might not even be aware of the influence those ads have on them.

By teaching media literacy, we can empower young people to protect themselves from the influence of advertisers. The Super Bowl, and the Big Bowl Vote, give us a teachable moment to talk about media literacy in an organic way. We invite you to download the Big Bowl Vote Playbook and take part in this year’s Big Bowl Vote.

We understand that the COVID-19 pandemic has upended the lives of young people among others this year. We’ve taken precautions ourselves to keep those we serve safe, and we encourage you to do so as well.

Fortunately, the Big Bowl Vote has been fully capable of being a virtual event for the last two years. Young people can vote online using a Google Form whether they’re at home or in school, and conversations about media literacy can occur over Zoom or other teleconferencing programs.

The Big Bowl Vote is about promoting safety and health, and we want to keep all our participants safe.

Want to learn how to play your role in prevention?