European sponsorship body rejects academics' alcohol claims

11 November 2009. The European Sponsorship Association (ESA) has seen the promotional release from the journal 'Addiction' and wishes to clarify a number of points.

ESA is the trade body representing the sponsorship industry in Europe. The Association's 240 members include sports governing bodies, arts companies, sports clubs, sponsorship consultancies, suppliers to the sector and also sponsors. Sponsor members include brands such as Visa, Coca-Cola, McDonald's, National Express, Guardian Newspapers, Aviva and Castrol.

ESA has a number of drinks industry members which account for three percent of its membership. The Association's agenda is independent as it looks after the benefits of sponsorship in general and its views are not set by the drinks sector.

Karen Earl, ESA Chairman, acknowledges that the alcohol sector is an important source of sponsorship revenue and says that ESA is highly mindful of the way that alcohol sponsorship has become linked in the press and in some people's minds with problem drinking.

“The Association recognizes that problem drinking is a serious social issue in Europe and elsewhere. While we have not seen any research to demonstrate even a causal link between alcohol sponsorship and high levels of drinking, we do believe that the sponsorship industry can be an important part of the solution. We have already seen members integrating responsible drinking messages into their sponsorship campaigns”.

ESA has been working with the European Commission to build on the body of research in this area and has made commitments on behalf of the sponsorship industry that will help encourage an even greater commitment from rights holders to support responsible drinking messages.

Findings from a recent ESA survey of rights holders and governing bodies across Europe revealed that self-regulation of alcohol sponsorship is viewed positively and is already commonplace at all levels and amongst all sectors of the industry. These findings were positively received when presented to the European Commission in June.

The 'Addiction' editorial appears to accept that sport would suffer significantly if alcohol sponsorship were withdrawn. ESA strongly agrees: a ban would be disastrous, particularly in the current economic climate. It would also be wholly unjustified, given there is no evidence of any link between alcohol sponsorship and problem drinking.

The NZ research cited by Addiction does not show such a link. What it demonstrates primarily is that if people are offered free or cheap drinks they are likely to drink more. This is hardly anything new and does not relate to or depend upon who the sponsor of an event might be. The research also lacks any proper scientific "control" - one of the key elements of reliable scientific research. Just because rugby gets significant amounts of alcohol sponsorship and rugby players and fans are more likely to be problem drinkers does not mean that alcohol sponsorship is the cause.

Earl adds that the causes are more to do with availability of cheap alcohol and some deep-rooted cultural factors. “We will continue to work together with our rights holders and drinks sector members to promote responsible drinking within the communities in which sponsorship operates”.

Ends For further information please contact the ESA Office on +44 (0) 20 8390 3311.

NOTE TO THE EDITOR: ESA is a member of the EU Alcohol and Health Forum, which comprises more than 50 businesses and non-governmental organizations who have agreed to take action to protect European citizens from the harmful use of alcohol. The Forum is working on an action plan to protect children and young people and to prevent irresponsible commercial alcohol communication and sales. The Forum is open to European bodies and ESA is the only representative of the sponsorship industry. ESA had consulted its members (rights holders and sponsors) who had agreed that it was important to be involved and to promote responsible sponsorship by the alcohol industry and by the event owners. ESA's first commitment was an extensive survey of rights holder which demonstrated a significant level of self-regulation and demonstrated awareness of the issues.