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ALCOHOL ADVERTISING
AND YOUTH/EUROPE
source: www.msnbc.msn.com/
id/3339635/
www.eurocare.org/btg/
conf0604/papers/hope.pdf
www.ias.org.uk/publications
/theglobe/03issue2/globe03issue2.pdf.
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Overall, European adults are drinking less. Yet Europe’s teenagers are drinking more and more - and they’re doing it at a younger age. Worse, it’s not just drinking - it’s binge drinking…- in the UK, kids younger than 16 drink twice as much as they did 10 years ago, chugging five pints of beer a week. In Ireland 59% of men and 26% of women between 18 and 29 binge-drink at least once a week. In Denmark, the number of 15-year-olds drinking at least once a week has spiked from 20% to 39% for girls and from 37% to 50% for boys since 1988. In 1990, 45% of 12- to 18-year-olds in France were drinkers, a lot by anybody’s standards. Now the figure is 70%. And it’s no longer just wine; half of those polled have switched to hard booze. What’s more, 70% of girls and 80% of boys had their first drink at the tender age of 11; (1)
- the surge has been no less radical in the East. Alcohol consumption has always been high in the former communist countries of Europe. But now it’s run amok. Drinking among young people has quadrupled in Lithuania, doubled in the Czech Republic and risen 25% in Slovakia. In Hungary, alcoholism has risen threefold since the fall of communism; it is now common for children to have their first drink at 12 or 13, instead of 17 or 18. What’s fuelling this bender? In Eastern Europe, many point to the massive growth in advertising, outdoor festivals and marketing that did not exist under communism. (1)
All around Europe there is an increasing concern about alcohol advertising (explicit and hidden) and its influence on youth…- the ubiquity of alcopops would be hard to deny. They have become the most dominant alcohol among young adolescents. They first appeared in Britain and Ireland in the mid-1990s - where teen drinking is among the highest in Europe - and have since been growing at a blistering 21% annually, according to Datamonitor, a London-based market-analyst firm.
- between 1989 and 1999 consumption of alcohol in Ireland increased by a staggering 41%, bringing the country to the top of the European league. In the last thirty years consumption has tripled. Ireland also has the unenviable distinction of leading Europe in the amount of 15 and 16-year old binge drinking whilst at the same time being the only country where girls now equal boys as far as this particular phenomenon. In Ireland, alcohol advertising is governed by voluntary codes or self-regulation. All codes set down certain guidelines to protect young people. However, during the last decade alcohol ad spend has increased in volume, from €25.8 million in 1996 to €43.2 million in 2002. The greatest increase happened in spirits ads between 1996 and 2000, coinciding with the introduction to the market of the new spirits based alcopops. Despite the voluntary code that spirits drinks would not be advertised on TV, alcopops strongly contributed to the increased ad spending on television (+228%); (2)
- in the United Kingdom, the British Medical Association has called for a complete ban on alcohol advertising, and clear labelling of alcoholic drinks to show the number of units they contain. It warns the UK has one of the highest levels of alcohol abuse and binge drinking in Europe, and doctors are now seeing unprecedented levels of liver disease among young people;
- in The Netherlands, the alcohol industry invests many millions of euros in advertising its products. The amount spent in the mass media in 2001 was €100 million, an increase of some 38 million since 1995. There are no legal restrictions on alcohol advertising, although, since 1991, a self-regulatory code had been in existence. In 2002 in The Netherlands, eight of the top twenty most active sponsors of youth events were brands of alcohol; (3)
- in September and October 2002, The Netherlands STAP (The Foundation for Alcohol Prevention), carried out an investigation into alcohol on Dutch television: the 528 programmes surveyed were broadcast on both public and commercial stations. The researchers found that in 60.8% of the programmes investigated, there was a reference to alcohol. In 80% of these, alcohol was prominently and favourably featured. The positive references are to the taste (23.6%), the relaxing effect (24.2%), the friendly atmosphere created (19.6%), and temptation and sexual contact (8.3%); (4)
- in France, a legal ban has been in place since 1987 on advertisements on television for alcohol over 1% alcohol by volume, and on advertising in publications for young people and in places where sports events are held. In other media, all alcohol advertisements must advise moderation in consumption. Ads must be pre-approved.
- In Italy, alcohol advertisements on television may be shown only after 8 pm. A voluntary code similar to that in Britain governs content. Italy’s Health Ministry recently launched a campaign to bar alcohol advertising targeting young people. It is now illegal to encourage excessive consumption, show alcohol addiction, address advertising to minors, link alcohol and driving or point out alcohol content in any advertising;
- in Poland, where 71% of children 11 to 15 admitted drinking alcohol at least once, lawmakers passed a tough new anti-alcoholism law in 2001 aimed at reducing youth drinking. The law severely restricted advertising and sport sponsorships by alcohol manufacturers and added a series of alcohol taxes.
(1) Radcliffe, L. and Piore, A., “Is Europe Drinking Too Much?”, Newsweek International, October 2003.
(2) Ann Hope, Department of Health, Ireland: “Alcohol Policy and Young People” presentation at the “Alcohol Policy Conference in the context of an enlarged Europe: Bridging the Gap”, Warsaw 16-19 June 2004.
(3) It is difficult to combat these youth-targeted marketing strategies because the self-regulatory code states that more than 25% of those participating must be under 18 years of age before a complaint can be accepted. Even were it possible to monitor the proportion of those aged under 18 at a pop festival, for example, the 25% rule would still make it possible to reach an enormous number of very young people without the rule being broken.
(4) This research was carried out by Karin Hommen in close co-operation with the Communications faculty of the University of Amsterdam (UvA).
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