Movendi; June 24, 2020
Women are one of Big Alcohol’s major target groups along with children and youth. There are various methods the alcohol industry uses to try and convert women into using alcohol.
Despite alcohol having very specific harms on women, such as the fact that women can get addicted to substances with smaller amounts and in shorter time than men, the alcohol industry continues to aggressively push their products on women. This is partly because women generally consume less alcohol than men, specifically in the global south. Another reason is that major alcohol companies are pursuing “emerging markets”, as older markets in the global north are heavily saturated. Big Alcohol needs new consumers to keep increasing their profits.
Movendi International has previously reported on tactics the alcohol industry uses to appeal to women such as through pink-washing of alcohol, marketing alcohol with other products such as makeup, promoting “low calorie” alcohol as better for women, and marketing alcohol as a gender equalizer by aligning with women empowerment.
One recent example of Big Alcohol exploiting women empowerment is a campaign by Absolut Vodka.