Alcohol industry influence on UK alcohol policy: A new research agenda for public health

The British government has been criticised for according industry interests too much weight in alcohol policy-making. Consequently, it has been argued that alcohol strategy in the UK is built around policies for which the evidence base is weak. This has clear implications for public health. The purpose of this commentary is to map recent developments in UK alcohol policy and related debates within the alcohol policy literature, thus laying the foundations for a systematic examination of the influence of the alcohol industry on alcohol policy. It highlights the changing structure of the industry and summarises what is known about the positions and strategies of industry actors towards alcohol policy. In so doing, it aims to contribute not just to debates about alcohol policy, but to a broader understanding of health policy processes and the relationships between government and other stakeholders. It advances a new research agenda focused on the role of corporate actors in the field of alcohol policy and public health more broadly.     

Alcohol and fast food sponsorship in sporting clubs with junior teams participating in the ‘Good Sports’ program: a cross‐sectional study

Objective : To examine: alcohol and fast food sponsorship of junior community sporting clubs; the association between sponsorship and club characteristics; and parent and club representative attitudes toward sponsorship. Methods : A cross‐sectional telephone survey of representatives from junior community football clubs across New South Wales and Victoria, Australia, and parents/carers of junior club members. Participants were from junior teams with Level 3 accreditation in the ‘Good Sports’ program. Results : A total of 79 club representatives and 297 parents completed the survey. Half of participating clubs (49%) were sponsored by the alcohol industry and one‐quarter (27%) were sponsored by the fast food industry. In multivariate analyses, the odds of alcohol sponsorship among rugby league clubs was 7.4 (95%CI: 1.8–31.0, p=<0.006) that of AFL clubs, and clubs located in regional areas were more likely than those in major cities to receive fast food industry sponsorship (OR= 9.1; 95%CI: 1.0–84.0, p=0.05). The majority (78–81%) of club representatives and parents were supportive of restrictions to prohibit certain alcohol sponsorship practices, but a minority (42%) were supportive of restrictions to prohibit certain fast food sponsorship practices. Conclusions : Large proportions of community sports clubs with junior members are sponsored by the alcohol industry and the fast food industry. There is greater acceptability for prohibiting sponsorship from the alcohol industry than the fast food industry. Implications for public health : Health promotion efforts should focus on reducing alcohol industry and fast food industry sponsorship of junior sports clubs.     

Public Health,Academic Medicine,and the Alcohol Industry’s Corporate Social Responsibility Activities

We explored the emerging relationships among the alcohol industry, academic medicine, and the public health community in the context of public health theory dealing with corporate social responsibility. We reviewed sponsorship of scientific research, efforts to influence public perceptions of research, dissemination of scientific information, and industry-funded policy initiatives.To the extent that the scientific evidence supports the reduction of alcohol consumption through regulatory and legal measures, the academic community has come into increasing conflict with the views of the alcohol industry.We concluded that the alcohol industry has intensified its scientific and policy-related activities under the general framework of corporate social responsibility initiatives, most of which can be described as instrumental to the industry’s economic interests.WE EXPLORED THE EMERGING relationships between the alcohol industry, academic medicine, and the public health community. Current trends suggest increasing involvement of the alcohol beverage industry in areas that traditionally have been the main foci of public health and academic medicine, such as scientific research, alcohol education, prevention programs, and alcohol control policies.1,2 Many of these activities can be interpreted in terms of corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives that many large corporations practice.3 We define CSR as business practices that help companies manage their economic, social, and environmental impacts as well as their relationships in key areas of influence, such as the marketplace, the supply chain, the community, and the public policy arena.To provide a context for an evaluation of the alcohol industry’s CSR activities, we reviewed the most prominent health issues that threaten the viability of the alcohol industry as a whole and that represent points of contention with public health and academic medicine. We have described the industry’s CSR activities and the risks involved for the academic community. We have provided an evaluation of the theoretical, scientific, and public health challenges that have emerged from industry involvement in alcohol-related health issues.     

Reassessing policy paradigms: A comparison of the global tobacco and alcohol industries

Tobacco is widely considered to be a uniquely harmful product for human health. Since the mid-1990s, the strategies of transnational tobacco corporations to undermine effective tobacco control policy has been extensively documented through internal industry documents. Consequently, the sale, use and marketing of tobacco products are subject to extensive regulation and formal measures to exclude the industry from policy-making have been adopted in the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control. In contrast to tobacco, alcohol is subject to less stringent forms of regulation, and the alcohol industry continues to play a central role in policy-making in many countries and at the global level. This article examines whether there is a sufficient rationale for such different regulatory approaches, through a comparative analysis of the political economy of the tobacco and alcohol industries including the structure of the industries, and the market and political strategies they pursue. Despite some important differences, the extensive similarities which exist between the tobacco and alcohol industries in terms of market structure and strategy, and political strategy, call into question the rationale for both the relatively weak regulatory approach taken towards alcohol, and the continued participation of alcohol corporations in policy-making processes.     

Flavored alcoholic beverages: an international marketing campaign that targets youth

Flavored alcoholic beverages (FABs) were first introduced into the alcohol market in the early I980s in the form of wine coolers. FABs are sweet, relatively low alcohol content beverages that are designed for "entry-level" drinkers. The alcohol industry has introduced new products and production methods to expand the category's popularity. Research suggests that they are popular with underage drinkers, particularly teenage girls, and that the industry uses marketing practices that appear to target youth. FABs are now marketed globally, and their production and marketing vary by country based on national regulatory restraints. In the United States, industry representations that the products are malt beverages for regulatory purposes appears to violate many state laws because the alcohol in the FABs is derived from distilled spirits. Recommendations for regulatory reform, including new legal definitions of FABs, increased taxes, and restrictions on availability, are applicable at both national and state levels.     

A syndemic analysis of alcohol use and sexual risk behavior among tourism employees in Sosúa, Dominican Republic

The Dominican Republic has high rates of HIV infection and alcohol consumption. Unfortunately, little research has been focused on the broader sources of the synergy between these two health outcomes. We draw on syndemic theory to argue that alcohol consumption and sexual risk behavior are best analyzed within the context of culture and economy in Caribbean tourism spaces, which produce a synergy between apparently independent outcomes. We sampled 32 men and women working in the tourism industry at alcohol-serving establishments in Sosúa, Dominican Republic. Interviewees described alcohol consumption as an implicit requirement of tourism work, tourism industry business practices that foster alcohol consumption, and an intertwining relationship between alcohol and sexual commerce. The need to establish relationships with tourists, combined with the overconsumption of alcohol, contributed to a perceived loss of sexual control, which participants felt could impede condom use. Interventions should incorporate knowledge of the social context of tourism areas to mitigate the contextual factors that contribute to HIV infection and alcohol consumption among locals.     

Reducing Youth Exposure to Alcohol Ads: Targeting Public Transit

Underage drinking is a major public health problem. Youth drink more heavily than adults and are more vulnerable to the adverse effects of alcohol. Previous research has demonstrated the connection between alcohol advertising and underage drinking. Restricting outdoor advertising in general and transit ads in particular, represents an important opportunity to reduce youth exposure. To address this problem, the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog group in Northern California, conducted a survey of alcohol ads on San Francisco bus shelters. The survey received sufficient media attention to lead the billboard company, CBS Outdoor, into taking down the ads. Marin Institute also surveyed the 25 largest transit agencies; results showed that 75 percent of responding agencies currently have policies that ban alcohol advertising. However, as the experience in San Francisco demonstrated, having a policy on paper does not necessarily mean it is being followed. Communities must be diligent in holding accountable government officials, the alcohol industry, and the media companies through which advertising occurs.     

Happy hours and other alcohol discounts in cafés: prevalence and effects on underage adolescents

Adolescents' alcohol-related attitudes and behaviors may be affected by marketing efforts of the alcohol industry, retailers, and the catering industry. Most research has focused on the effects of commercials and media exposure. This article investigates another aspect of alcohol marketing in the Netherlands: the use of alcohol discounts by cafés. The prevalence of alcohol discounts was studied using unobtrusive café observations and website content analysis. It is estimated that 39% of the cafés offer some kind of cash discount for alcoholic beverages. The effects of alcohol discounts were investigated in a survey among adolescents (14-17 years old, N=409). Adolescents reported using alcohol discounts eight times a year, and consuming more alcohol when discounts were offered. Alcohol discounts, however, do not attract adolescents to visit particular cafés and/or to spend more money when going out. No differences were found between minors (16-17 years) and underage adolescents (14-15 years).     

Advocates, interest groups and Australian news coverage of alcohol advertising restrictions: content and framing analysis

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Legislating restrictions on alcohol advertising is a cost-effective measure to reduce consumption of alcohol. Yet Australia relies upon industry self-regulation through voluntary codes of practice regarding the content, timing and placement of alcohol advertising. Ending industry self-regulation was recommended by the National Preventative Health Taskforce; a suggestion contested by the drinks industry. Debates about emerging alcohol-control policies regularly play out in the news media, with various groups seeking to influence the discussion. This paper examines news coverage of recommendations to restrict alcohol advertising to see how supporters and opponents frame the debate, with a view to providing some suggestions for policy advocates to advance the discussion. METHODS: We used content and framing analyses to examine 329 Australian newspaper items mentioning alcohol advertising restrictions over 24 months. All items were coded for mentions of specific types of advertising and types of advertising restrictions, the presence of news frames that opposed or endorsed advertising restrictions, statements made within each frame and the news-actors who appeared. RESULTS: Restrictions were the main focus in only 36% of 329 items. Alcohol advertising was conceived of as television (47%) and sport-related (56%). Restrictions were mentioned in non-specific terms (45%), or specified as restrictions on timing and placement (49%), or content (22%). Public health professionals (47%) appeared more frequently than drinks industry representatives (18%). Five supportive news frames suggested the policy is a sensible public health response, essential to protect children, needed to combat the drinks industry, required to stop pervasive branding, or as only an issue in sport. Four unsupportive frames positioned restrictions as unnecessary for a responsible industry, an attack on legitimate commercial activities, ineffective and 'nannyist', or inessential to government policy. Support varied among news-actors, with public health professionals (94%) more supportive than the public (68%), community-based organisations (76%), the government (72%), and the sports (16%), drinks (3%), or advertising (4%) industries. CONCLUSION: Restrictions on alcohol advertising currently have low newsworthiness as a standalone issue. Future advocacy might better define the exact nature of required restrictions, anticipate vocal opposition and address forms of advertising beyond televised sport if exposure to advertising, especially among children, is to be reduced.     

Breath alcohol test in construction sites in the Province of Belluno: a campaign in favour of health promotion and surveillance and against drinking

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES: Health impairment due to alcohol use and abuse is well known, in terms of relationship with traffic accidents and work accidents. In Italy almost 10 per cent of accidents at work involve intoxicated people injuring themselves and innocent victims. Alcohol abuse is a factor involved in determining severe accidents in the construction industry and epidemiological studies demonstrated a relationship between an elevated alcohol use and severity of accidents. Since in the Province of Belluno alcohol consumption may be elevated also at work, the two Occupational Health Units (SPISAL) in the province organized a campaign of information and surveillance against alcohol consumption at work in the construction industry. This report shows the campaign results, mainly in terms of breath alcohol tests performed in construction workers. DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS: After an extensive information campaign we inspected 50 sites, where 105 construction companies were at work, and tested 294 workers by breath alcohol test. No-one refused the test. Only 2.7% construction workers were positive for the breath alcohol test, and the levels were not elevated. This study shows that the construction workers in Belluno Province are responsible drinkers and are well aware of the policy of prohibition of alcohol consumption at work.     

The alcohol industry lobby and Hong Kong's zero wine and beer tax policy

ABSTRACT: BACKGROUND: Whereas taxation on alcohol is becoming an increasingly common practice in many countries as part of overall public health measures, the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government is bucking the trend and lowered its duties on wine and beer by 50 percent in 2007. In 2008, Hong Kong removed all duties on alcohol except for spirits. The aim of this paper is to examine the case of Hong Kong with its history of changes in alcohol taxation to explore the factors that have driven such an unprecedented policy evolution. METHODS: The research is based on an analysis of primary documents. Searches of official government documents, alcohol-related industry materials and other media reports on alcohol taxation for the period from 2000 to 2008 were systematically carried out using key terms such as "alcohol tax" and "alcohol industry". Relevant documents (97) were indexed by date and topic to undertake a chronological and thematic analysis using Nvivo8 software. RESULTS: Our analysis demonstrates that whereas the city's changing financial circumstances and the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government's strong propensity towards economic liberalism had, in part, contributed to such dramatic transformation, the alcohol industry's lobbying tactics and influence were clearly the main drivers of the policy decision. The alcohol industry's lobbying tactics were two-fold. The first was to forge a coalition encompassing a range of catering and trade industries related to alcohol as well as industry-friendly lawmakers so that these like-minded actors could find common ground in pursuing changes to the taxation policy. The second was to deliberately promote a blend of ideas to garner support from the general public and to influence the perception of key policy makers CONCLUSIONS: Our findings suggest that the success of aggressive industry lobbying coupled with the absence of robust public health advocacy was the main driving force behind the unparalleled abolition of wine and beer duties in Hong Kong. Strong public health alliance and advocacy movement are needed to counteract the industry's continuing aggressive lobby and promotion of alcoholic beverages.     

Public awareness and misunderstanding about DrinkWise Australia: a cross‐sectional survey of Australian adults

Objective: DrinkWise Australia is an alcohol industry Social Aspects/Public Relations Organisation (SAPRO). We assessed the Australian public's awareness of DrinkWise, beliefs about its funding source, and associations between funding beliefs and perceptions of DrinkWise. Methods: A total of 467 adult weekly drinkers completed an online cross‐sectional survey in February 2016. Results: Half the sample had heard of DrinkWise (48.6%); of these, the proportion aware that DrinkWise is industry funded (37.0%) was much smaller than the proportion believing it receives government funding (84.1%). Respondents who incorrectly believed DrinkWise receives government funding were more likely to hold a favourable perception of the organisation's credibility, trustworthiness and respectability than those who did not believe it receives government funding (75.9% vs. 58.3%; p=0.032). Conclusions: The drinking population is vulnerable to believing that alcohol industry public relations organisations such as DrinkWise are government funded, which in turn is associated with more favourable perceptions of the organisation's credibility, trustworthiness, and respectability. Implications for public health: Favourable perceptions of DrinkWise may enhance the industry's ability to delay or dilute potentially effective alcohol control policies. Future research should investigate whether educating the public about DrinkWise's alcohol industry funding alters the public's perception of how credible, trustworthy and respectable the organisation is.     

Changing Policy Framing as a Deliberate Strategy for Public Health Advocacy: A Qualitative Policy Case Study of Minimum Unit Pricing of Alcohol

Context

Scotland is the first country in the world to pass legislation introducing a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol in an attempt to reduce consumption and associated harms by increasing the price of the cheapest alcohol. We investigated the competing ways in which policy stakeholders presented the debate. We then established whether a change in framing helped explain the policy''s emergence.

Methods

We conducted a detailed policy case study through analysis of evidence submitted to the Scottish parliament, and in-depth, one-to-one interviews (n = 36) with politicians, civil servants, advocates, researchers, and industry representatives.

Findings

Public- and voluntary-sector stakeholders tended to support MUP, while industry representatives were more divided. Two markedly different ways of presenting alcohol as a policy problem were evident. Critics of MUP (all of whom were related to industry) emphasized social disorder issues, particularly among young people, and hence argued for targeted approaches. In contrast, advocates for MUP (with the exception of those in industry) focused on alcohol as a health issue arising from overconsumption at a population level, thus suggesting that population-based interventions were necessary. Industry stakeholders favoring MUP adopted a hybrid framing, maintaining several aspects of the critical framing. Our interview data showed that public health advocates worked hard to redefine the policy issue by deliberately presenting a consistent alternative framing.

Conclusions

Framing alcohol policy as a broad, multisectoral, public health issue that requires a whole-population approach has been crucial to enabling policymakers to seriously consider MUP, and public health advocates intentionally presented alcohol policy in this way. This reframing helped prioritize public health considerations in the policy debate and represents a deliberate strategy for consideration by those advocating for policy change around the world and in other public health areas.     

Alcohol brands in young peoples' everyday lives: new developments in marketing

New developments in alcohol marketing are likely to be particularly important for younger members of the population both because of their use of new technology and the role brands play in their lives. This paper discusses the response of young people to this marketing, the functions it fulfils for the alcohol industry and the need for new policy responses.     

Editorial – Time to get tough on unhealthy sponsorships

Health is everybody's business, and the Bangkok Charter placed health promotion firmly in a global context, calling for an integrated policy approach where health is central to global development and a key requirement for good corporate practice. The Charter recognised the potential harms associated with marketing strategies1 and there is a growing recognition that advertising and marketing of unhealthy food and drinks, including alcohol, have a negative impact on children's knowledge, attitudes, preferences and consumption. A recent New Zealand study also found links between alcohol industry sponsorship and higher levels of alcohol consumption among sport participants. In Australia, the National Preventative Health Taskforce placed advertising and marketing of unhealthy products firmly on the national health agenda and concluded that the weight of evidence is now sufficiently compelling to recommend action to control what remains an overwhelmingly self‐regulated industry.     

Dark Nudges and Sludge in Big Alcohol: Behavioral Economics,Cognitive Biases,and Alcohol Industry Corporate Social Responsibility

Policy Points

• Nudges steer people toward certain options but also allow them to go their own way. “Dark nudges” aim to change consumer behavior against their best interests. “Sludge” uses cognitive biases to make behavior change more difficult.
• We have identified dark nudges and sludge in alcohol industry corporate social responsibility (CSR) materials. These undermine the information on alcohol harms that they disseminate, and may normalize or encourage alcohol consumption.
• Policymakers and practitioners should be aware of how dark nudges and sludge are used by the alcohol industry to promote misinformation about alcohol harms to the public.

Context“Nudges” and other behavioral economic approaches exploit common cognitive biases (systematic errors in thought processes) in order to influence behavior and decision‐making. Nudges that encourage the consumption of harmful products (for example, by exploiting gamblers’ cognitive biases) have been termed “dark nudges.” The term “sludge” has also been used to describe strategies that utilize cognitive biases to make behavior change harder. This study aimed to identify whether dark nudges and sludge are used by alcohol industry (AI)–funded corporate social responsibility (CSR) organizations, and, if so, to determine how they align with existing nudge conceptual frameworks. This information would aid their identification and mitigation by policymakers, researchers, and civil society.MethodsWe systematically searched websites and materials of AI CSR organizations (e.g., IARD, Drinkaware, Drinkwise, Éduc''alcool); examples were coded by independent raters and categorized for further analysis.FindingsDark nudges appear to be used in AI communications about “responsible drinking.” The approaches include social norming (telling consumers that “most people” are drinking) and priming drinkers by offering verbal and pictorial cues to drink, while simultaneously appearing to warn about alcohol harms. Sludge, such as the use of particular fonts, colors, and design layouts, appears to use cognitive biases to make health‐related information about the harms of alcohol difficult to access, and enhances exposure to misinformation. Nudge‐type mechanisms also underlie AI mixed messages, in particular alternative causation arguments, which propose nonalcohol causes of alcohol harms.ConclusionsAlcohol industry CSR bodies use dark nudges and sludge, which utilize consumers’ cognitive biases to promote mixed messages about alcohol harms and to undermine scientific evidence. Policymakers, practitioners, and the public need to be aware of how such techniques are used to nudge consumers toward industry misinformation. The revised typology presented in this article may help with the identification and further analysis of dark nudges and sludge.     

Challenges to medications development in treating alcohol dependence: an international perspective

Few medications for treating alcohol dependence exist. Greater partnership is needed between academia and the pharmaceutical industry to develop, licence and market efficacious medications for treating alcohol dependence. Methodologies that span the divide between preclinical and large-scale clinical studies need to be developed in order to provide sufficient information on safety, toleration, drug-interaction profile and efficacy, with which to guide development decisions. Due to the heterogeneous nature of alcohol dependence, the effort of developing an efficacious medication is likely to be enhanced by clearer choices about the characteristics of the population. Careful consideration of potential mechanism of action of the putative therapeutic medication should enable the appropriate choice of drinking endpoint. The pharmaceutical industry in collaboration with academia might need to develop new approaches to determining appropriate treatment endpoints with regulatory bodies. The investment risk to industry should be appraised not only in terms of the rather poor results of previous marketing efforts but with a view to the opportunity to penetrate a potentially enormous and largely untapped market.     

Debate. Public discourse on alcohol

There are many and varied voices in the public discourse on alcohol: those of the public health interests; those of the vested interest groups; and those of the media themselves. The concerns of those in the field of public health are to prevent any increase and, where possible, reduce the harms which are experienced from alcohol use. Occupying a somewhat different position in the public discourse are the voices of the distributors and producers of alcohol. While there is some shared concern about the adverse consequences of alcohol use, the primary interest of these groups is to protect the return on the investment of their shareholders. Among those with a stake in alcohol industry profits, there is a reluctance to accept the use of public policies which have a direct impact on overall consumption and drinking behaviour. The preference of the vested interest groups is that the public discourse be aimed at informing and persuading the individual drinker (and future drinker) to behave in a certain way. These groups want the role of the public health interests to the use of educational programmes, while at the same time utilising the mass media to inform and persuade in the form of direct and indirect advertising campaigns which promote the use of alcohol. Other aspects of the public discourse on alcohol are disseminated in the entertainment, news and editorial pages of newspapers and content of television programmes. Here too there are conflicting messages about alcohol, with coverage of the public health issues being juxtaposed alongside the perspectives of the alcohol producers and distributors and other vested interest groups such as the advertising industry. The media are key players in the public discourse on alcohol. Alcohol policy issues have long been hotly contested and in the 1990s much of the debate is shaped by the portrayal of alcohol and alcohol policy in the mass media. There has always been a considerable imbalance between the resources available for the promotion of alcohol use and those to moderate it, and it is concluded that access to the mass media by public health voices is essential if public health goals are to be achieved.     

Industry Actors,Think Tanks,and Alcohol Policy in the United Kingdom

Corporate actors seek to influence alcohol policies through various means, including attempts to shape the evidential content of policy debates. In this case study, we examined how SABMiller engaged the think tank Demos to produce reports on binge drinking, which were heavily promoted among policymakers at crucial stages in the development of the UK government’s 2012 alcohol strategy.One key report coincided with other SABMiller-funded publications, advocating measures to enhance parenting as an alternative to minimum unit pricing. In this instance, the perceived independence of an influential think tank was used to promote industry interests in tactics similar to those of transnational tobacco corporations.This approach is in keeping with other alcohol industry efforts to marginalize the peer-reviewed literature.On July 17, 2013 the UK government announced that it would not progress plans to introduce a minimum unit pricing (MUP) for alcohol, which had been set out in its alcohol strategy in March 2012.1 This decision had been widely predicted2 and followed only days after the announcement that the introduction of plain packaging for tobacco products would be delayed indefinitely. Trends in key indicators of alcohol problems have been rising steeply in Britain, whereas they have been declining elsewhere in Western Europe.3,4The world’s leading alcohol scientists recommend increasing the price of alcohol, through MUP or other means, as a policy measure,5 but many sectors of the alcohol industry strongly oppose it.6–8 The decision to halt implementation of MUP, as with the delay in implementing plain packaging for tobacco products, brought accusations that the government had been unduly influenced by industry actors, including David Cameron’s election strategist Lynton Crosby, whose consultancy works on behalf of the tobacco and alcohol industries.9Following the MUP announcement, prominent individuals and organizations from the public health community withdrew from the government’s flagship Responsibility Deal Alcohol Network, citing excessive industry influence on policy as the reason for their decision.10 Previous studies demonstrate that tobacco and alcohol industry actors exert corporate influence through multiple channels, including funding other bodies to conduct research on their behalf.7,11Like the tobacco industry, the global alcohol industry has become increasingly concentrated among a small number of large multinational producers, which are among the world’s largest and most profitable corporations.12 SABMiller is one of the world’s largest brewers, producing or marketing more than 200 beer brands in 75 countries.12 As such, its policy-influencing activities may be similar to those of other large alcohol industry corporations.7 Headquartered in London, SABMiller strongly opposed plans to introduce MUP in Scotland, questioning the evidence base for its effectiveness and declaring ideological opposition to state intervention in the market.13 In opposing MUP, their submission to the Scottish government’s consultation on MUP in 2008 claimed that evidence consistently demonstrated the impact of parenting on whether children begin drinking, although none was presented or referenced.13We have presented a case study of SABMiller’s funding of research conducted by the think tank Demos and its attempt to use this research to influence policy debates at crucial stages in the development and implementation of the UK government’s alcohol strategy. Demos describes itself as “Britain’s leading cross-party think tank . . . dedicated to bringing politics closer to the people.”14We analyzed the reports produced along with press releases and related material published on the Demos Web site. We monitored further policy-influencing activities related to the reports through regular examination of the Demos Web site, social media outputs, and other publications relating to the project from 2011 to 2012. In addition, we attended 2 launch events for the published reports in an observational capacity and conducted a semistructured interview with a Demos employee involved in the SABMiller-funded work.     

Risky Messages in Alcohol Advertising, 2003–2007: Results From Content Analysis

PurposeTo assess the content of alcohol advertising in youth-oriented U.S. magazines, with specific attention to subject matter pertaining to risk and sexual connotations and to youth exposure to these ads.MethodsThis study consisted of a content analysis of a census of 1,261 unique alcohol advertisements (“creatives”) recurring 2,638 times (“occurrences”) in 11 U.S. magazines with disproportionately youthful readerships between 2003 and 2007. Advertisements were assessed for content relevant to injury, overconsumption, addiction, and violations of industry guidelines (termed “risk” codes), as well as for sexism and sexual activity.ResultsDuring the 5-year study period, more than one-quarter of occurrences contained content pertaining to risk, sexism, or sexual activity. Problematic content was concentrated in a minority of brands, mainly beer and spirits brands. Those brands with higher youth-to-adult viewership ratios were significantly more likely to have a higher percentage of occurrences with addiction content and violations of industry guidelines. Ads with violations of industry guidelines were more likely to be found in magazines with higher youth readerships.ConclusionsThe prevalence of problematic content in magazine alcohol advertisements is concentrated in advertising for beer and spirits brands, and violations of industry guidelines and addiction content appear to increase with the size of youth readerships, suggesting that individuals aged <21 years may be more likely to see such problematic content than adults.