Kenney, L. J., Cukier, S., Khoury, L., & Steeves, D. (2021). ‘You drink at home so you can go to work safely’: a case study exploring alcohol marketing during the COVID-19 pandemic. Drug and Alcohol Review, 1-4. 10.1111/dar.14474

A new study that examines how one alcohol company in Nova Scotia, Canada, coopted he facilities, staff, logos and fundraising efforts of a local health charity to market the sale and home delivery of a 6% alcohol by volume product via social media.  

Specifically, this study investigates the marketing practices of the alcohol brand and suggests why the marketing practices are problematic.

The study is focused on this region since Nova Scotia embeds a strong drinking culture where alcohol is sold via a provincial government monopoly. Furthermore, during the pandemic only one alcohol retailer remained open in the province: the NSLC, which saw a 2165 increase in bulk purchases of alcohol.

In the spring of 2020, a local independent microbrewery in Halifax, NS, brewed, released and marketed a 6% alcohol by volume beverage they dedicated to frontline health-care workers; it was named ‘FrontLiner’. The alcohol company reported that 50% of the FrontLiner profits would be donated to a local hospital-based health charity’s COVID-19 fund to purchase urgently needed pandemic medical supplies.

FrontLiner was marketed via social media platforms by the alcohol company as well as the local health charity with slogans such as “‘You drink at home so they can go to work safely”. Only on Instagram the page reached 19,000 followers.

The article dives into this case reasoning on the importance of institutional health-care policies that can restrict alcohol marketing.

To read the full article, click on the following link: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/dar.13374.

 

 

 

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