EUCAM Newsletter February 2019 - Updates on alcohol marketing

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EUCAM collects, exchanges and promotes news and knowledge about the impact of
alcohol marketing and alcohol marketing regulation throughout Europe.
Visit the website of EUCAM: www.eucam.info

New WHO factsheets reveal Europe struggles to implement policies to reduce alcohol consumption

31-01-2019 Alex Plonsky

The WHO European Region struggles with one of the highest levels of alcohol-related deaths in the world. To discuss effective and evidence-based ways to reverse this trend, Member States met in Stockholm, Sweden, at the first regional consultation focused on the implementation of the European action plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol 2012–2020.

Participants reviewed ways to bring critical support to this process. The European action plan has supported the reduction of alcohol consumption since its adoption, but room for improvement remains. More than 3 million people died worldwide as a result of alcohol abuse in 2016, and 1 million of those deaths occurred in the European Region.

“The numbers are striking and, although the problem is complex, we know which actions and policies are effective,” said Dr Bente Mikkelsen, Director of the Division of Noncommunicable Diseases and Promoting Health through the Life-course at WHO/Europe.

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UK children are seeing fewer alcohol adverts on TV – but are they watching them online instead?

EUCAM Comment on the conclusions of the British Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) on new data about the exposure of children and young people to alcohol advertising.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), which, among other things, monitors alcohol advertising in the United Kingdom, recently announced with that children in the UK aged between 4 and 15 have seen fewer alcohol advertisements on television in recent years. See a message at www.campaignlive.co.uk (1) and the ASA study (2).

Children saw 27% fewer ads (for all products) on TV per week in 2017 than in 2008, and 65% fewer alcohol ads. The ASA attributes this remarkable fall to two main factors:

Children are watching less scheduled television programs and more online content. This means that children in the UK are seeing less than half as many TV adverts (for any product, not just alcohol)
However this decline in children’s TV viewing is not enough to account for the decline in alcohol advertising. The report therefore refers to “changes in marketing spend and behaviour” as the other main reason.

Andrew Misell, a director of the charity Alcohol Change UK published a report in 2018 on the self-regulation of the UK alcohol industry (3). He agrees with the ASA on the reasons for the reduction, but also warns that this does not necessarily mean children are seeing less alcohol advertising. There are indications from the alcohol industry that it is spending less on TV advertising and more on other media (mainly online), with the number of alcohol adverts on television falling in recent decades. This, or course, raises the possibility that children are simply viewing alcohol adverts online instead of on the television.

Wim van Dalen, European Centre for Monitoring Alcohol Marketing (EUCAM)

Utrecht, The Netherlands.

11-01-2019

Gen A Attitudes Towards Booze Forcing Brands To Change Their Marketing Tactics

By Ally Burnie

New research out of the UK from Red Brick Road and Opinium has revealed Gen Z (18- to 25-year-olds) have a radically different relationship with alcohol than older generations, and as a result, alcohol brands need to change their marketing strategies.

The Last Round?, a study into Gen Z’s attitudes towards alcohol revealed stark divides in attitudes towards alcohol between Gen Z and older generations in the UK.

A few key trends from the research showed the changes in attitude come down to: performance over partying, holistic health awareness, prioritising savouring drinks over alcohol percentage and the rise of stay-at-home socialising.

According to the study, 75 per cent of Gen Z feel it’s important to be in control of all aspects of their life at all times.

In an increasingly competitive world, they view a hangover and sloppy social media presence as a competitive disadvantage.

Mental health is also just as important as physical health for Gen Z, with 83 per cent feeling drinking alcohol is a risky activity.

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Why banning alcohol advertising for young people is the right move

Frank Murray: It is shocking that children see more alcohol adverts than adults

The Irish Times Mon, Jul 17, 2017, 05:58

France has achieved a 25 per cent decline in alcohol consumption since introducing advertising restrictions via the “Loi Evin”. Photograph: Fran Veale

This overwhelming support was consistently held across individuals of all party preferences. Our poll findings highlight yet again that public opinion is ahead of sectoral interests and their lobbyists.

Over recent days, we have witnessed the power of the drinks industry as they swamped the pages of our national and regional media with spurious claims of a “threat” to local community arts and cultural events, and “decimated” advertising revenue to the media industry. This is a tactic to combat proposed, government-led, public health legislation to tackle the wide-ranging harm caused by alcohol in Ireland.

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Alcohol industry corporate social responsibility may do more harm than good

Content analysis finds CSR effectiveness is illusory

Alcohol industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) schemes strengthen their own commercial interests while failing to meaningfully reduce harmful alcohol use, according to a new report released today.

Published in the BMJ Open, the study of industry CSR actions across six global regions found that almost all of them (96.8%) lacked scientific support. Meanwhile, alcohol producers benefitted from brand exposure and the appearance of being able to manage risk and achieve strategic goals.

The research team employed a content rating procedure to analyse 30% (N = 1,046) of 3,551 industry-sponsored actions described in an online database website maintained by the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD).

Actions were assessed on the basis of their global distribution according to United Nations regions, the benefits reaped to the industry in terms of marketing potential, impact on regulatory policy, and type of CSR strategy, and the public health impact of the industry actions were evaluated in terms of their likely effectiveness and potential harm.

The industry actions were found to have been conducted disproportionately in regions with high-income countries (Europe and North America), compared with lower proportions in Latin America, Africa and Asia.

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