A new study has linked alcohol advertising in sports towards more positive attitudes towards those brands and alcohol in general.

The Monash University study suggested continuous exposure could also have an effect on our long term drinking behaviours.

Massey University's Steve Stannard told Mike Hosking the results aren't a surprise.

"The alcohol marketing people know this as well. If you've got a whole bunch of people running around a field or playing their sport, everyone thinks they are gods...we watch them because we enjoy it and they are people we put up on a pedestal in a physical and sometimes other sense and you associate something with them and, of course, it is going to be seen in a specific light."

He said the study also compared alcohol with motor oil and didn't have the same effect.

This could mean people have a closer relationship with alcohol than with alcohol, he said.

He said the reason 20 per cent of sports marketing is alcohol, is because it works.