A study conducted by Katherina Robaina, Katherine Brown, Thomas F. Babor and Jonathan Noel, titled “Alcohol industry actions to reduce harmful drinking in Europe: public health or public relations? critically evaluated the CSR activities of the alcohol industry in the EU, including large campaigns conducted in numerous countries across the region, such as “Champions Drink Responsibly”, as well as smaller initiatives, such as
codes of ethics for brewer’s associations for a particular country (16) . In public announcements and press releases,
alcohol industry groups claimed that the actions represented their contributions towards the Global strategy, SDGs and, by extension, the reduction of NCDs. The findings presented cast doubt on this claim. Only a quarter of the industry actions could be classified into any Global strategy target area; less than 2% of sampled activities were consistent with evidence-based practice, and only one action pertained to the WHO “best buys”. Interventions demonstrated to be effective in reducing alcohol-related harm were rarely conducted, whereas activities demonstrated to be ineffective (or for which there is no evidence) were often promoted by alcohol industry groups.