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ALCOHOL ADVERTISING/
SELF-REGULATION
source: www.eurocare.org/btg/
conf0604/papers/hope.pdf
www.ias.org.uk/publications/
theglobe/03issue2/globe03issue2.pdf
www.pta.org/archive_article
_details_1117639814859.html
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Drinks companies have shown a willingness to submit to responsible self-regulation - something largely missing from the food industry… - according to the International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP), in many countries, advertising for alcohol beverages, as for many other products and services, has been subject to self-regulatory rules for many years. A recent survey of 22 European countries found that 21 countries, including all EU15 Member States and an increasing number of other European countries, have developed self-regulatory systems that govern alcohol advertising;
- in addition to formal self-regulatory systems, most of the major alcohol beverage companies have their own internal codes of practice for advertising and promotional activities or are in the process of developing them. These can have a particularly important role to play in countries where there are no codes of practice and/or few regulatory controls. As a general principle, it is the role of alcohol beverage producers, as brand owners, to market their products responsibly, but there are responsibilities, too, on the part of the retailers of alcohol beverages;
- some countries do not even define the age when alcohol beverage purchase becomes ‘legal’ for young people, so there is no ‘rule’ for retailers to enforce. Few countries in the developing world have yet introduced some of the controls at retail level that exist elsewhere regarding the sale of alcohol to underage young people. In South Africa, for example, the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use has developed a code of practice for alcohol beverage retailers, with the support of the government;
- almost every industry code of practice relating to alcohol - whether a company or self-regulatory code - prohibits the targeting of minors. How explicitly this is conveyed varies, but some codes include additional clauses requiring that models used in advertisements be above a certain age (18 in Singapore; 21 in Nigeria; 25 in the UK, South Africa and Australia), the prohibition of the use of children’s characters - fictitious or not - (Germany, Hong Kong, New Zealand, UK, USA) or placement at events where the majority of the audience is underage (Hong Kong, Nigeria, USA);
- it is important to note that self-regulation and government oversight do not represent two opposite and mutually exclusive alternatives. Rather, they exist on a continuum, and the issue is one of striking the right balance between the two. Some codes of practice incorporate independent pre-vetting systems to catch irresponsible promotions before they become public. In Australia, for example, the drinks industry has voluntarily established such a system for alcohol advertising;
- in the United Kingdom, the industry-sponsored Portman Group introduced its voluntary code of practice on the naming, packaging and merchandising of alcohol beverages in April 1996. This was largely in response to public and government concern regarding the introduction of alcoholic lemonade and other so called ‘alcopops’ in the UK. The Portman Group’s second review of its code of practice in 2001 noted that 78% of complaints made were in the first two years of the code's existence (1996-1998). The grounds for the complaints were predominantly ‘under-age appeal’, which have subsequently almost disappeared. Although a few producers did not comply with the independent complaints panel decisions, retailer action has resulted in offending products being taken off the shelves;
- in the United States, in 1999, in response to requests from Congress beginning in 1997, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report titled, "Self-Regulation in the Alcohol Industry: A Review of Industry Efforts to Avoid Promoting Alcohol to Underage Consumers” . Based on reports from eight industry members, who collectively accounted for 80% of alcohol advertising expenditures at that time, the report found that of eight companies reporting, two had no demographic data on whether their advertising was playing to majority underage audiences. Furthermore, the FTC found that "two other companies' data showed weeks when a large portion of ads (for one, 25% of its TV ads, for another, 11% of its radio ads) were shown to a majority underage audience."
Currently, the alcohol industry essentially regulates itself, with voluntary guidelines to curb youth advertising. Many believe, however, that the self-imposed rules are weak…- in Ireland, in 2003 the Drinks Industry Group established a Central Copy Clearance company to vet alcohol advertising prior to launch to ensure compliance with the voluntary code. However, despite the CCC role, alcohol advertisements continue to breach the code, illustrating the deficiencies of the self-regulation system; (1)
- in the United States, the beer and distilled spirits industries call for no advertising on programmes with a 50% or more youth audience. However, in 2001, only 1% of all US network and cable television programmes tracked by Nielson (187 out of 14,359) had an underage audience of 50% or more - the industry threshold. Further, even this meagre 50% threshold was violated, as alcohol advertisers spent US$1.8 million to air 3,262 commercials on shows with more youth viewers than adults;
- in response to criticism, the US beer and distilled spirits industries changed their codes in September 2003 to restrict ads where the youth audience is 30% or more. Because this still permits advertising where the youth are disproportionately represented in the audience, the Institute of Medicine recommended that the industry move toward a 15% threshold monitored on an ongoing basis by the Public Health Service;
- finally, so-called ‘responsibility’ ads - those placed by the industry to encourage drinking responsibly and not drinking and driving, or to discourage underage drinking, have been questioned. The Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) analysed the industry's responsibility advertising on television in 2001. Alcohol companies placed more than 87 product promotion commercials for every ad about not driving after drinking, or not drinking before age 21. Spending on responsibility ads totaled less than 3% of the industry's TV advertising budget, according to CAMY analysis;
- an emerging issue that is especially relevant to young people is the dramatic growth in the use of the internet as a new form of commercial communication. Businesses, including the alcohol industry, use the internet as a marketing tool. Young people are major users of the internet, and this is becoming a cause for concern;
- in an effort to reflect the popularity of the internet, the Beer Institute in 1997 and the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States in 1998 modified their codes to address issues arising in the new online environment. According to the FTC's report, many of these web sites post age reminders and offer links to parental filtering software. Some sites make an effort to limit content such as chat rooms, contests and cartoons, which appeal to youth. In November 1999, the Center for Media Education (CME) released a report contending that software filters, the very solution to which alcohol web sites are linking, fail to protect children from web site marketing and selling of alcohol- and tobacco-related products. (2)
(1) Terry-McElrath, Y.M., Harwood, E.M., Wagenaar A.C., Slater, S., Chaloupka, F.J., Brewer, R.D., and Naimi, T.S. Point-of-Purchase Alcohol Marketing and Promotion by Store Type - United States, 2000—2001, MMWR 52(14):310-313 April 11, 2003.
(2) Center for Media Education, "Youth Access to Alcohol and Tobacco Web Marketing: The Filtering and Rating Debate", 1997.
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