Alcohol Marketing during the UEFA EURO 2016 Football Tournament: A Frequency Analysis

International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health

Richard I. Purves 1,* , Nathan Critchlow 1, Martine Stead 1, Jean Adams 2 and Katherine Brown 3 1 Institute for Social Marketing and UK Centre for Tobacco & Alcohol Studies, Faculty of Health Sciences & Sport, University of Stirling, Scotland FK94LA, UK; nathan.critchlow@stir.ac.uk (N.C.); martine.stead@stir.ac.uk (M.S.) 2 MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Cambridge CB20QQ, UK; jma79@medschl.cam.ac.uk 3 The Institute of Alcohol Studies, Alliance House, London SW1H 0QS, UK; KBrown@ias.org.uk

* Correspondence: r.i.purves@stir.ac.uk; Tel.: +44-017-866-7352 Received: 12 May 2017; Accepted: 26 June 2017; Published: 29 June 2017

Abstract: Thisstudyexaminedthefrequencyandnatureofalcoholmarketingreferencesinbroadcasts of the 2016 UEFA (Union of European Football Associations) European Championships football tournament in the United Kingdom (UK). Eighteen matches from across the tournament were recorded in full as broadcast in the UK, including all four matches featuring the English national team and all seven featuring the French national team. All visual and verbal references to alcoholmarketing were recorded using a tool with high inter-rater reliability. A total of 2213 alcoholmarketing references were recorded, an average of 122.94 per broadcast and 0.65 per broadcast minute (0.52 per minute in-play and 0.80 per minute out-of-play). Almost all references were visual (97.5%), with 77.9% occurring around the pitch border. Almost all (90.6%) were indirect references to alcohol brands (e.g., references to well-known slogans), compared to only 9.4% direct references to brands (e.g., brand names). The frequency of references to alcohol marketing was high. Although the overall proportion of direct brand references was low, the high proportion of indirect references demonstrates that alcohol producers were able to circumvent the French national law governing alcohol marketing (the Loi Évin) using indirect “alibi marketing”. To ensure the spirit of the Loi Évin regulations are achieved, stricter enforcement may be required to limit exposure to alcohol marketing, particularly for young people.
Keywords: alcoholmarketing; alcoholpolicy; marketing regulations; sponsorship; frequency analysis

Post Navigation