The findings demonstrate that alcohol industry-funded webtools and apps, including those provided by Drinkaware, use covert ‘misinformation strategies’, omit important public health information, and ‘nudge’ us to drink more alcohol.
The study compared 15 digital tools funded by the alcohol industry - which claim to provide alcohol-reduction advice - with 10 non-industry funded digital tools (including those developed by not-for-profits and charities such as Alcohol Change UK’s free Try Dry® app) that have been approved, promoted and signposted to by government or healthcare services.
No misleading information tactics were identified in any of the non-industry funded and nationally approved tools, while all but one alcohol industry-funded tool was found to omit, distract or dilute some information about the risks associated with drinking alcohol.
Commenting on the study, Alcohol Change UK CEO, Dr. Richard Piper said:
“When we drink alcohol, it has an impact on our health and wellbeing. From headaches, sleepless nights and hangovers to high blood pressure, anxiety, and cancer. These wide-ranging impacts affect so many of us at different levels of alcohol consumption, not just those of us drinking at high-risk levels.
“Yet, this study tells us that big alcohol companies, and the organisations they fund, are not being honest with us. The risks of alcohol-related harm are conveniently glossed over in these industry-funded apps. They claim to inform and ‘protect’ us but stay silent on the role of the alcohol industry in causing alcohol harm, putting the blame onto us as individuals. Some of these tools even encourage us to drink more alcohol through misleading messaging and imagery.
“We urgently need clearer information and better regulation around how alcohol is marketed and promoted to us. Key to this is addressing these discredited materials and resources, which are failing to tell us the truth about what we’re drinking and how it may impact our health and wellbeing.
“Government must also look to bring alcohol labelling into statutory control so that we can all have the information we deserve on our bottles and cans. This includes being signposted to trusted and properly independent sources of information such as that provided by Alcohol Change UK, rather than from partial, industry-funded bodies.”
Read the news release on the findings here and access the full report at Health Promotion International.
For an evidence-based tool, free from the influence of big alcohol companies, download Alcohol Change UK’s free Try Dry® app. Whether you want to participate in Dry January®, take a break at any time, cut down on your drinking or go totally alcohol-free, Try Dry® can help and is available for free, year-round.
