The government of Ireland’s plans for health warning on alcoholic products have raised opposition from within the EU from eleven Member States. The Irish want to introduce under their Public Health Alcohol Bill, mandatory health warning on all alcoholic drinks as well as total alcohol and calorie content. However, the plans are opposed by Netherlands, … Read More →
One of the undeniable powers of social media is its ability to influence people and their behaviors. This is especially true, a Michigan State University study finds, when it comes to alcohol use. MSU researchers found that when participants in a study were exposed to ads touting beer, as opposed to those selling bottled water, … Read More →
This Wednesday, EU Commissioner Günther Oettinger presented the new draft proposal of the AVMSD, which was shockingly devoid of increased restrictions on alcohol advertising. The new proposal follows a 2015 public consultation in which many European health- and consumer organizations indicated they wanted the AVMSD to do a better job at protecting minors against exposure … Read More →
European news portal Euractiv.com last week obtained a leaked draft proposal of the Audiovisual Media Services Directive (AVMSD), which regulates broadcast and on demand media at the European level. As hoped by many health scientists and NGOs, the proposal underscores the importance of protecting young people against harmful media content, including alcohol advertising. However, worries … Read More →
Source: CCTV America
While tobacco companies have not been allowed to buy product placement in television shows since 2000, alcohol brands continue to self-regulate their marketing in media. But a new research abstract to be presented at the Pediatric Academic Societies 2016 Meeting showing how strongly alcohol brand placement relates to the drinking behavior of underage youth suggests … Read More →
The National Market and Competence Commission has fined the Mediaset TV company €653,456 for allowing alcohol advertisements to be shown on TV before the watershed. In Spain the watershed to protect children and youth from alcohol ads is between 8.30pm and 6am the following day. Spanish regulations do allow ads for alcohol products with strength of less than … Read More →
In recent years the Dutch government gave a € 6.6 million grant to Heineken for so-called development aid in Africa. Prime Minister Rutte praised Heineken in September 2015 during a speech to the UN, because of the purchase of beer barley from local farmers in Africa.
Research journalists of the Dutch television-program Zembla studied the impact of the € 1.3 million grant Heineken received from the Dutch government for the acquisition of two state breweries in Ethiopia.
Who benefited? The advantage for Heineken is obvious: net sales rose sharply and the company now controls 30% of the Ethiopian beer market. But that does not apply to the Ethiopian government: Heineken currently pays – despite increased sales – less income tax than before the acquisition in 2011. In addition, Heineken also paid much less wage tax. That’s because since the acquisition of the two breweries, 699 Ethiopians were fired by Heineken.
The impact on poverty in the country and on the beer barley farmers who participate is unclear. The latter have a higher yield and a better price, but may only supply the breweries of Heineken. An expert of the IMF judges the results of the Dutch policy as a lose-lose-win situation. A loss for the Ethiopian treasury, a loss for the personnel of the breweries and a win for Heineken.
Source: Zembla.vara.nl via our colleagues at STAP the Dutch Institute for Alcohol Policy.
A new systematic literature review on how the alcohol industry attempts to influence marketing regulations, concludes that the alcohol industry’s political activity is more varied than previously thought. According to the research there are considerable commonalities between tobacco and alcohol industry political activity. Data extraction from seventeen papers showed that the alcohol industry’s opposition to … Read More →
Scotland’s government policies have had a positive effect on alcohol consumption in Scotland. According to a new report by NHS Health Scotland, the ban on multi-buy drinks promotions was among a number of successful initiatives. Despite the success, NHS Health Scotland warned that more needed to be done to ensure that these improvements continued. Among … Read More →