Institute for Alcohol Studies, 23 July 2026
This new documentary, Digital Intoxication: Alcohol Marketing Explained, draws on WHO, Cancer Research UK, and new 2026 research to show how alcohol companies use algorithmic targeting, undisclosed celebrity endorsement and metaverse marketing to reach heavy drinkers and children – set against this year’s landmark US ruling against Meta and YouTube over addictive platform design. Featuring Professors Antonia Lyons and Nic Carah, plus testimony from Karen, a Balance North East spokesperson.
How Alcohol Marketing Is Targeting You Online
In 2026, a US jury found Meta and YouTube liable for designing platforms deliberately engineered to be addictive to children – a verdict many are calling tech’s “Big Tobacco moment.” But the platforms aren’t just addictive by design. For years they’ve been rented out to some of the most sophisticated marketers on earth – including the alcohol industry.
This documentary investigates how digital alcohol marketing actually works: the algorithms that find people already drinking heavily and target them “disproportionately”, the influencers (including The Rock, Beyonce, and Kendall Jenner) promoting their own alcohol brands to hundreds of millions of followers without ad disclosure, and the rise of alcohol marketing inside e-sports, video games, and even the metaverse. We speak to leading researchers on the data behind the targeting, the impact on children and teenagers, and why regulation has consistently failed to keep pace with the technology.
In this film:
- Why “lookalike” targeting makes algorithmic advertising especially dangerous for addictive products
- How influencer marketing evades alcohol advertising rules entirely
- What the data shows about TikTok, e-sports, and underage exposure
- Why the WHO says this is now a children’s rights issue
- What a tobacco-style regulatory response could look like
The regulatory tide is starting to turn – but not evenly. As governments from Australia to the UK move to restrict or ban children’s access to social media entirely, this film asks a question regulators haven’t yet grappled with: even if platforms are made safer, what happens to the industries – like alcohol – that have built their marketing machines inside them? And in the UK, that same logic now extends beyond marketing to the point of sale itself: Alcohol Change UK research suggests over 12 million UK adults use rapid alcohol delivery apps at least weekly, with use heaviest among those already drinking at harmful levels – fuelling calls for restrictions on round-the-clock, on-demand access.
🎬 Watch here: https://youtu.be/9tIye2pKvYw