Why do brands advertise? While I could insert a lengthy quote here about ‘brand-synergy’ and ‘market-penetration’, the short answer is so we buy things. Their things, specifically. So, it follows, if we don’t want children to buy alcohol, we don’t want them to be exposed to alcohol marketing.
Research* has identified that exposure to alcohol advertising is linked to children drinking from an earlier age, more heavily, and in riskier ways than they otherwise would. Whether it be movies, magazines, video games, television, online, sports and music sponsorship, alcohol-branded merchandise, free samples, price promotions, or social media and user-generated content – similar effects have been identified across all of these marketing channels.
It seems there’s an urgent need to protect children from exposure to alcohol advertising. So, what has been done? In reality, very little. Currently, alcohol marketing in the UK is self- and co-regulated, by the Advertising Standards Authority (funded by the advertising industry), Ofcom, and the Portman Group (funded by the alcohol industry). This system has been widely criticised – specifically for its failure to protect children.
When the House of Commons Health Select Committee investigated this system, they discovered internal marketing communications from alcohol producers and their advertising agencies showing that young people are in fact a target of alcohol advertising.
These documents showed that market research data on 15-16 year olds were used to craft campaigns. Prominent UK alcohol brands appeared, with Carling hoping to “become the most respected youth brand...” and Lambrini suggesting TV spots hoped to be “a cross between myspace and High School the Musical [sic]”. More concerningly, one Carling executive went further to suggest “[Young men] think about four things, we brew one and sponsor two of them”. The situation does not seem to have improved with time; only this summer Rita Ora came under fire for promoting a tequila brand to her young Instagram followers – the ASA are yet to investigate.
The UK Government looks set to take bold steps to protect young people from junk food advertising, and we hope they have the same drive to protect children from the harms of alcohol advertising. The Alcohol Charter calls for statutory regulation of this marketing, by a body free from industry influence, similar to that of France’s ‘Loi Evin’ regulation. Loi Evin restricts placement and content of alcohol advertising, making the targeting of young people illegal.
It is not only the Alcohol Charter’s supporters calling for this; the World Health Organisation back this change, and Public Health England have stated that self-regulatory systems, like the one we currently have, fail to meet "their intended goal of protecting vulnerable populations" and that the use of such self-regulatory codes as a route to influence policy “are similar to the strategies used by the tobacco industry".
We need change now.
The policies laid out in the Alcohol Charter represent realistic, powerful ways to reduce the harm caused by alcohol. Help make them happen.
