The British charity Alcohol Concern has published a new report which concludes that alcohol industry campaigns for ‘responsible drinking’ have little effect, and may even be counterproductive. The report, written by researchers from Glyndwr and Bangor Universities suggests that rather than focusing on responsible drinking campaigns, it’s more effective to make alcohol more expensive and … Read More →
Welsh health minister Lesley Griffiths calls for stricter regulations on alcohol marketing to tackle excessive drinking. One of these tightened regulations would mean a ban on alcohol marketing, another would be a minimum price per unit. “While the UK government’s recent proposal to ban sales below the cost of duty is a small step in … Read More →
Media owners, sport and event sponsors, industry specialists, members of the entertainment industry as well as the alcohol industry gathered recently in Johannesburg, to discuss and prevent the government’s proposed ban on alcohol marketing. Over a hundred stake holders visited the meeting, to voice their concerns over the negative effects a ban would have on … Read More →
6% of the views of adult-orientated YouTube content are by 13 to 17 year olds, concludes digital marketing agency AccuraCast.com. This means that when an alcohol commercial has had 10 million views on YouTube, on average 60.000 children under the age of 17 have seen it. Farhad Divecha, MD of AccuraCast said: “YouTube alcohol uploads … Read More →
Last week AB Inbev, the company behind such brands as Jupiler, Stella Artois, Budweiser and Beck’s, announced plans for their new Facebook initiative called Family Talk, intended to support parents seeking to educate their children about responsible drinking. The initiative kicked off in the UK but will also be launched in Germany, France and the … Read More →
Research by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University suggests that the use of social media by teenagers increases their substance abuse. The report, based on findings from the National Survey of American Attitudes on Substance Abuse also concluded that on a typical day, more than half of the teens using … Read More →
This week representatives from the 53 WHO European Region Member States adopted the WHO’s European Action Plan to reduce the harmful use of alcohol. However, it seems that commercial interests have precedence over health protection, as the final version of the plan has become considerably more industry-friendly, compared to earlier drafts. The most notable change … Read More →
This week spirits producer Diageo (Smirnoff, Johnnie Walker, Baileys and Guinness amongst other brands) announced a multimillion-dollar deal with social network website Facebook. Diageo is confident this will boost their sales but health experts warn that the impact of this deal will be mainly felt in teenage drinking. In their press release, Diageo states that … Read More →
The industry funded institution Drinkaware has re-launched its ‘Why let good times go bad?’-campaign to address unhealthy drinking behaviors amongst the UK’s young adults. After cuts to the campaigning budget of the Department of Health, the campaign by Drinkaware is the only national alcohol awareness campaign. It quickly becomes apparent that this is an initiative … Read More →
A new report by Camy (the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth), based on research by Johns Hopkins University, concludes that alcohol producers frequently don’t adhere to their own voluntary rules concerning the exposure of children to radio advertisements. This rule entails that alcohol advertisements may not be broadcasted to an audience, which consists for … Read More →