Young people: Alco­hol ads in sport ‘send wrong mes­sage on health goals

Alcohol sponsorship of sporting teams and events clashes with the health aspiration of getting fitter, young people have told Scottish university reseachers.

A study by the Uni­versity of Stirl­ing found that the young people sur­veyed view alco­hol spon­sor­ship as con­tra­dict­ory to the healthy aspir­a­tions of sport but acknow­ledged it had become nor­m­al­ised. A major­ity called for restric­tions on the prac­tice.

The study found that par­ti­cipants were fre­quently exposed to alco­hol spon­sor­ship through tele­vised sport, social media and advert­ising, par­tic­u­larly when watch­ing foot­ball and rugby, with many report­ing see­ing alco­hol brand­ing daily. The find­ings come after Fifa gen­er­ated bil­lions of dol­lars in World Cup spon­sor­ship rev­enue, includ­ing from alco­hol brands whose products were heav­ily pro­moted dur­ing matches watched by mil­lions of young people world­wide.

The study, pub­lished in the journal Drugs: Edu­ca­tion, Pre­ven­tion and Policy, asked 10 online focus groups of people aged 11 to 17 across Scot­land for their views on alco­hol spon­sor­ship of sports teams, com­pet­i­tions and events. It found that while young people demon­strated a soph­ist­ic­ated under­stand­ing of spon­sor­ship as a mar­ket­ing strategy, many ques­tioned why alco­hol brands were asso­ci­ated with sport and expressed con­cerns about the impact such mar­ket­ing could have on young people.

One par­ti­cipant said: “It’s a bit ironic for sports, which is obvi­ously linked with health, to be partnered with alco­hol.” Another said: “It’s always been there in sport­ing events. If you’re younger, you’re always see­ing it, so it’s becom­ing quite nor­mal.”

Research­ers say poli­cy­makers should con­sider how alco­hol mar­ket­ing oper­ates across mul­tiple plat­forms that are access­ible to young people, and how repeated expos­ure can shape atti­tudes towards alco­hol.

Dr Richard Purves, from the Insti­tute for Social Mar­ket­ing and Health (ISMH) at the Uni­versity of Stirl­ing, led the study. He said: “Young people are not simply noti­cing alco­hol spon­sor­ship in sport – they are act­ively think­ing about what it means and ques­tion­ing whether it belongs there. “Many par­ti­cipants saw a clear con­tra­dic­tion between the healthy image of sport and the pro­mo­tion of alco­hol brands, but they also described alco­hol spon­sor­ship as something they have come to expect because it is so vis­ible across sport­ing events and broad­casts. “This cre­ates a situ­ation where alco­hol brand­ing can become nor­m­al­ised, even among young people who are crit­ical of it.

“Poli­cy­makers should con­sider not only how often young people are exposed to alco­hol spon­sor­ship, but also how they can bet­ter pro­tect young people from repeated expos­ure to alco­hol mar­ket­ing through sport.”

Respond­ents repor­ted see­ing alco­hol spon­sor­ship most fre­quently while watch­ing foot­ball and rugby, par­tic­u­larly through tele­vi­sion broad­casts where brand­ing appeared on pitch-side advert­ising and team kits, and in com­mer­cial breaks. Many also expressed con­cern that alco­hol spon­sor­ship could influ­ence younger view­ers by cre­at­ing pos­it­ive asso­ci­ations between alco­hol brands and their favour­ite teams, ath­letes and sport­ing events. 

One par­ti­cipant said: “It’s not a good mes­sage to send to young people watch­ing sport.” Another added: “If you’re watch­ing foot­ball or rugby all the time, there’s always an alco­hol brand spon­sor­ing it. So, you’re going to think it’s not that bad if they’re spon­sor­ing it that often.”

Most par­ti­cipants said steps should be taken to reduce young people’s expos­ure, includ­ing by restrict­ing when alco­hol spon­sor­ship can appear dur­ing broad­casts and lim­it­ing where brand­ing can be dis­played at sport­ing ven­ues.

The study was fun­ded by Scot­tish Health Action on Alco­hol Prob­lems (SHAAP), a part­ner­ship of the Med­ical Royal Col­leges and the Fac­ulty of Pub­lic Health in Scot­land. SHAAP chair­man Dr Alastair Mac­Gil­christ OBE said: “This research shows that young people can see exactly what the alco­hol industry would prefer they didn’t: that there is a basic con­tra­dic­tion in using sport, which we asso­ciate with health and achieve­ment, to sell a product respons­ible for so much harm. 

“When chil­dren tell us alco­hol brand­ing has become so nor­mal they barely ques­tion it any more, that should con­cern all of us. “Repeated expos­ure to alco­hol mar­ket­ing shapes atti­tudes over time and sport gives the industry a dir­ect line to young audi­ences on a massive scale. “Poli­cy­makers now have clear evid­ence, in young people’s own words. Restrict­ing alco­hol spon­sor­ship in sport is a sens­ible, pro­por­tion­ate step to pro­tect chil­dren from mar­ket­ing they neither chose nor bene­fit from.”

Original article