www.alkoholpolitik.ch

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is requiring 14 major alcoholic beverage producers to provide information about their online marketing. The FTC will use the information for a study that will guide recommendations on how the alcohol industry should regulate itself, both online and offline.

The last time the FTC completed an alcohol marketing study was in 2008, using data from 2005, according to The Kansas City Star. That study found only 1.9 percent of alcohol marketing expenditures went toward Internet efforts.

The marketing landscape has changed dramatically since then, with a much greater emphasis on social media. For example, Bacardi has at least seven Facebook pages, with a total of 1.7 million fans, according to David Jernigan, Director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Johns Hopkins University’s Bloomberg School of Public Health. He notes that Captain Morgan Rum has a video game app for iPhones. Many companies connect with consumers through Twitter. …
(Source: Join Together, 05/3/12)

Policy makers must not rely on self-regulation, but rather follow up through more statutory measures to protect the consumers.

Last week, major producers from the alcohol industry together with the World Federation of Advertising presented The Responsible Marketing Pact which scales up self-regulation[1]..

As a response, Civil Society Organisations with diverse backgrounds are now reminding policy makers at European and Member State level about the need for better regulation and co-regulation, and urge the European Commission and Member States officials not to jump on easy solutions in a new EU Alcohol Strategy 2013-2020.

“It cannot be left to the producers of a harmful product to decide how, when and where it will be marketed. Policy makers must not rely on self-regulation, but rather follow up through more statutory measures to protect the consumers. The content of this pact is basically the old ineffective measures of self-regulation in a new package. What we are witnessing are two powerful industries formally coming together to fight regulation- this is alarming”, says Mariann Skar, Secretary General of the European Alcohol Policy Alliance. …
Source: Eurocare.org, 04/25/12)
also: press release Active, 04/25/12)

If medical journals and public health advocates are concerned with corporate conflicts of interest, inappropriate marketing
to children, impotent self-regulation, and general flouting of the rules, why are we ignoring the alcohol industry? The crisis of confidence that surrounds the behavior and practices of Big Tobacco and Big Pharma [1,2]—bias in funded research, unsupported claims of benefit, and inappropriate promotion and marketing, among others—should be enough to provoke in us all a high degree of skepticism with any industry involvement in health research and policy. But the evidence and critical voices highlighting the practices of the alcohol industry—a massive and growing US$150 billion global business—have not yet received adequate prominence in medical journals. Indeed, attention to and scientific research on the alcohol industry have not kept pace with the industry’s ability to grow and evolve its markets and influence in the health arena. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 06/30/11)
The PLoS Medicine Editors

Every so often at Marin Institute, we get a complaint from someone about an alcohol advertisement they’ve seen in their community they think shouldn’t be there. Most of the time, they’re right. In our role as industry watchdog, I’ve taken on the responsibility to report such complaints to the industry directly to get the ads removed as soon as possible.
However, we have made a deliberate decision to not use the industry’s official complaint process, because as we demonstrated with our report in 2008, it’s a failure and a charade. … (Source: Marin Institute, 5/17/11)

– a systematic review of the literature
Abstract
Objective: The most recent scientific literature indicates that alcohol advertising influences behavior, particularly early and higher alcohol consumption by children and adolescents. From a public health perspective, alcohol advertising should be restricted. In many countries, as well as in Brazil, limits to alcohol advertising are established by industry self-regulation (e.g. controlled by the advertising community itself). We examined in this review all papers on the subject of industry self-regulation of alcohol advertising published in the international literature. … Discussion: The set of papers obtained indicates that industry self-regulation of alcohol advertising does not show evidence of efficacy. In other
words, such a regulation does not prevent, for instance, alcohol advertising directed at children and adolescents. Conclusion: Further measures should be considered for the control and the broadcast of alcohol advertising, such as independent monitoring, legal control. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 5/18/11) scielo.br

Following the continued proliferation of alcohol advertising in social and traditional media outlets, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) recently announced plans to conduct another review of the effectiveness of the alcohol industry’s self-regulation of its own advertising campaigns. As noted in the Marin Institute’s 2008 report „Why Big Alcohol Can’t Police Itself: A Review of Self-Regulation in the Distilled Spirits Industry,“ the industry’s voluntary guidelines fail to protect underage youth from exposure to alcohol advertising. The FTC is currently seeking public comment until April 26, 2011 on the companies‘ compliance with ad placement provisions; status of third-party review of complaints; and industry data-collection practices. We encourage everyone concerned about the effects of alcohol advertising to submit comments here. Marin Institute will make our own comments available, so check back. (Source: Marin Institute Newsletter, 03/23/11)

The Portman Group, the organisation for UK drinks producers, has launched a campaign to raise awareness of the strict standards imposed on the alcohol industry by its Code of Practice.
A series of full page ads in the media will highlight the rules and invite people to be on the look-out for any irresponsible alcohol products or marketing campaigns by drinks producers. (Source: Alcohol Reports, 12/02/10) alcoholreports.blogspot.com, 12/02/10 Comment: Self regulation of the industry never works. And this is the best way to make people aware of alcohol advertising. Clever indeed.

On the cover of this issue: Global Alcohol Strategy on the right track
Also in this issue:
* Draft global strategy to reduce harmful use of alcohol – Summary of Report
* Swedish Presidency – Major Alcohol Conference in Stockholm
* EU Alcohol Strategy makes a promising start
* GAPA Board meets in Sweden
* European Economic and Social Committee calls for statutory controls on alcohol marketing Self-regulation ‘not enough’, etc. All articles online

* Meeting 09 June 2009, * Mapping Exercise – Targeting youth – Social Marketing – Self Regulation

Ads Target Younger Drinkers. Addiction scientists are calling for tighter regulation of alcohol advertising, as new research shows that self-regulation by the alcohol industry does not protect impressionable children and youth from exposure. The new research, conducted in Australia, found that adolescents in the five main cities saw nearly as much TV alcohol advertising as 18-24 year olds, and in the case of full-strength beer and wine, in one city underage teens were actually exposed to more advertising than young adults of a legal drinking age. (Source: Medical News Today, 6/11/09)

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