15 September 2012
Hello and welcome to Talking Alcohol Advertising in Europe, a new biweekly column on the EUCAM website that offers a spotlight to people from all around Europe, who like to tell something about their research on alcohol advertising or describe something special concerning alcohol marketing in their country.
To get the ball rolling, and give an idea about the aim of this column, I will start with writing something about EUCAM and where we currently are with this organisation.
EUCAM was set up in 2007 with the goal to collect, exchange and to promote knowledge and experience about alcohol marketing throughout Europe. We have been doing this with the support of the NGOs: ACTIS (Norway), AV.OG.TIL (Norway), IOGT-NTO (Sweden), Alcohol & Society Denmark , Eurocare Italia; PARPA (Poland); and STAP (the Netherlands).
Since you are reading this on our website, I presume that you are already familiar with our constantly updated news page, giving you the latest developments on the global subject of alcohol marketing in the broadest sense. But did you know that you can find even more news relating to alcohol marketing if you follow us on Twitter?
You can look to our website for a scientific base of evidence on the subject of alcohol marketing, since we provide an up-to-date and extensive database of abstracts of scientific articles on the subject of alcohol marketing.
But besides the website, EUCAM also regularly creates physical products such as Fact Sheets and Reports. For instance check out our report on the Seven Key Messages of the Alcohol Industry. Right now we are working on a Fact Sheet on the availability of strong beers (containing more then 7% alcohol) throughout Europe.
We are also busy with research into the field of alcohol marketing. For instance, last April we published the results of the AMMIE project, a big research project that was held in Bulgaria, Denmark, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands. You can read the results of this project in individual country reports dedicated to either of the four research topics, or pick up a paper or digital version of the overview report.
One of the scientific research projects that we are busy with at the moment is the AMPHORA project, in which we aim to quantify the exposure to alcohol advertising in young people. With this research we will be able to examine the individual and overall impact on youngster’s drinking habits over three years.
Beyond the borders of Europe, we are currently working on a large scale research project in Africa. My personal favorite, MAMPA, is a research project commissioned by the World Health Organization Regional Office for Africa. After our pilot research in 2010 in Ghana, The Gambia, Nigeria and Uganda, this time we are analyzing the situation with national NGO’s in Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa, Tanzania and Zambia, with improved monitoring techniques.
So there you have it, this is EUCAM in a nutshell. As you can see we’ve got lots of exciting things coming your way in the near future. This new column, Talking Alcohol Advertising in Europe, being just one of many. We would love to hear from our partners, contacts and supporters throughout Europe to hear about the current state of alcohol advertising in your country or what actions you’re taking to minimize its harms. If you are interested in writing a guest-column for us, please contact us at eucam@eucam.info. I’d like to advise you to check this page again in two weeks as Anki Pulliainen of Finland’s RAITIS and Booze Rebellion writes about the heated Finnish debate on alcohol marketing and the campaigns and anti-campaigns that have sprung up in public life.
My best wishes,
Wim van Dalen,
President of the European Center for Monitoring Alcohol Monitoring
