For many of us (myself included) that deal with mental health issues like anxiety, depression, and social issues, abused alcohol as a seeming miracle cure to self medicate, though this is short lived and before you know it, all of your issues are amplified times a million, and you're caught in the grips of alcoholism.
Though this isn't the case for everyone, most alcoholics don't have other mental health issues, they are just plain alcoholics.
Media advertising had nothing to do with my alcoholism, hell I don't think i've ever even seen an advertisement for the booze I drank. Trying to pass blame is an alcoholic staple, but in the end it does all come down to us. We are the ones that chose to drink on our own, no one forced us to do so.