Alcohol Action Ireland: Alcohol marketing pervades new spheres
Three out of every 10 teenagers between the ages of 16 and 17 in Ireland has viewed an alcohol advertisement online, according to new research carried out by Behaviour and Attitudes, and commissioned by Action Alcohol Ireland (AAI).
When asked what their favourite television advertisements were, the same peer group listed five of their top 10 advertisements as alcohol-related.
The findings were presented as part of Alcohol Action Ireland's Have We Bottled It? Alcohol Marketing and Young People conference which was held in the Royal College of Physicians of Ireland and launched by the Chief Medical Officer of Ireland, Dr. Tony Holohan.
The conference brought together national and international experts to examine the trends behind alcohol marketing and its impact on young's people behaviour as well as key policy measures to deliver change.
Click here to see interviews with the speakers, as well as their conference presentations
Fiona Ryan, the chief executive of Alcohol Action Ireland, outlined the case for addressing alcohol advertising. “Alcohol is one of the most heavily marketed products on our shelves. The alcohol market in Ireland is worth over €6 billion this year. Research has established that alcohol advertising increases the likelihood that young people will start drinking earlier, and those who are already drinking will drink more. The World Health Organisation, in its strategy to reduce alcohol-related harm, cites alcohol marketing and pricing as key action areas for delivering change.”
Last year, more than €68 million was spent on advertising both alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks products using traditional advertising techniques. Diageo spent more than €18 million on advertising in 2009, while Heineken spent more than €11 million.
However, any debate that focuses solely on traditional advertising models, such as television or print, would fail to tackle growing online marketing techniques.
Dr Patrick Kenny, a lecturer in the School of Marketing at the Dublin Institute of Technology, made the point that younger people can now be easily accessed through their online activities. “From a marketer's point of view, the online world is a dream, as you can get people to engage with your brand and start promoting it on Facebook or Twitter or whatever. If you go and ban TV advertising on its own, then I believe alcohol marketing budgets will be pushed into other areas, which are harder to regulate.”
Some drinks companies are deliberately flouting filtering software codes that were agreed by their industry and the Government in 2004 to prevent online marketing to minors, the lecturer claimed.
Pat Kenny told the participants that while posing as a 15-year-old, he managed to join four of these brands' fan clubs on the Facebook social media networking site.
“One of these brands was in the top four of the most popular accounts in Ireland on the social networking site,” he commented.
Kenny told delegates at the conference that while some pages requested members to enter their ages, they could easily be falsified. Some of the pages contained cartoon images or computer games more appropriate to younger users and were interactive, enabling the drinks industry to engage with them, he said. He called for independent age-verification systems such as those operating in the US for some tobacco, pornography and gambling websites.
There are three alcohol brands in the top 10 for having the most fans on Irish Facebook pages, down from four in the previous fortnight, the lecturer said.
According to Kenny, Baileys is in second place overall (with 878,781 fans) to popular rock band U2's 4.6 million fans, followed by Guinness Ireland in sixth place (with 161,446 fans) and Jameson Irish Whiskey in ninth place with 103,584 fans.
The industry, the lecturer said, is also utilising iPhone Apps, which can combine interaction, GPS location services and ability to share with others, making the user a powerful marketer.
Another participant, Prof Gerard Hastings, director of the Institute for Social Marketing in Scotland, and a leading expert on alcohol marketing, is also of the belief that we must look at alcohol advertising. “The attempt to get across moderation messages are being drowned out in a cacophony of messages in all sorts of media encouraging young people to consume alcohol in every possible way and time,” he says.
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