Alcohol Marketing Policy – an
urgent challenge for global
governance
Sally Casswell
SSA Conference
2010, York
Overview
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Alcohol heavily marketed commodity
Lack of policy response
Context: rise of TNCs and self regulation
Contrast with approach to tobacco
Need for comparable global response
Govts, Intergovts, NGOs in global governance
Suggested ‘framings’ for alcohol debate
New policy issue
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Relative to availability and price
Emergence of ‘Big Alcohol’ with big profits
Expansion of free trade ethos
Developments in technology
Extent and nature of marketing
• Increased modes and venues
– Traditional measured media
– New media
– Viral marketing
– Product placement
– Branded events/sponsorship/brand stretching
• One of the most heavily marketed
products
• Beyond national boundaries
Research evidence on alcohol
marketing
• 1970s -1980s: ‘inconclusive’ effects
– Econometric analysis of expenditure and
partial restrictions
• 1990s – 2010 use of additional
complementary research methodologies
– Natural experiments, cross-sectional and
longitudinal surveys, experiments, qualitative
research, advertising industry documents
Effects of alcohol marketing
• Impacts on young people
– Positive beliefs about drinking
– Reduced age of onset
– Larger amounts consumed
• Effects with adults/ those wishing to
abstain?
• May be greater effects in emerging
markets
Beneficiaries of marketing
• Producers
– Recruiting (potentially heavy) drinkers from new
age cohorts
– Recruiting from unsaturated population segments
– Normalisation of drinking in range of settings
– Heightened perception of positive effects
– Social norms: an ordinary commodity
• Media, advertising industries and
sponsorship recipients
• Consumers?
Widespread use of voluntary codes
• Reliance on ‘self regulation’
– Replaced regulation and evolved during
1980s -1990s
• More recently ‘co-regulation’
• Internal auditing systems
– Trend to calls for increased accountability and
mandatory regulation of TNCs
• Few examples of comprehensive
regulation
Evidence of ineffectiveness of self
regulation
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Susceptible to economic imperatives
Used to avoid regulation
Exposure of young people continues
Under- interpretation of codes of content
Lack of relevance of codes of content
Measured impacts of advertising from ads found
acceptable under code
• Conclusion: not effective
– Babor et al, 2010
• So why still so widespread?
Activities of TNCs (producers and
front organisations)
• Early recognition of need to avoid similar
fate of tobacco industry
• Stakeholder marketing
– Disaster relief
– Sponsorship intergovt conferences
– Education eg drinking responsibly messages
– Sponsorship of conferences
– Publications
– Funding research
Industry messages to stakeholders
• Most drinkers responsible
• Industry shares goals of promoting
moderate use
• Health, social, economic benefits from
moderate drinking
• Responsible drinkers should not be
penalised by alcohol policy
• Drinkers have the right to make informed
choice about alcohol use
Activities of TNCs (producers and
front organisations)
• Active marketing campaign to promote self
regulation
– National activity
• Asian and African country workshops, Thai visit
– Regional workshops
• Asian, Africa. Latin America (ICAP)
– Global influence
• Consultation on WHO global strategy
Lack of action by national
governments
• Community/health sector concern
– ‘most difficult policy area’
• Few examples of comprehensive
restrictions
– France Sweden Norway
• trans national marketing
– failure to control internet, satellite TV, global
sponsorship
Need for a global response
• ‘globalisation means that it is more difficult
for national governments to hold
corporations accountable than in the past’
• global governance
– TNCs
– State (goverments and inter- govermental)
– NGOs
Intergovernmental
• Intergovernmental have:
– moral influence, technical expertise, but
susceptible to commercial pressure
• WHO is policy holder
– global strategy to reduce harmful use of
alcohol – not a health treaty
– Incremental step?
– need for resource
NGO sector
• Undeveloped cf tobacco
– 200 NGOs in lead up to FCTC
• Few strong national examples
– Stopdrink Network in Thailand (funding base)
• Academics and professional organisations
– World Medical Association, American PHA
• Alcohol Specific NGOs
– GAPA, APAPA, IAPA, EAAPA – emerging
• Engagement in evidence based debate
New framing for alcohol debate
• Most drinkers responsible
• Industry shares goals of promoting moderate use
• Significant proportions of the alcohol market are
consumed in heavy drinking sessions and in
risky drinking patterns
• Alcohol marketing communicates beverage
potency and intoxication to young people
• Health, social, economic benefits from moderate drinking
• Costs of heavy drinking outweigh benefits
• Harm to others makes major, undercounted contribution to alcohol harm
– Effects on health status and well being
– Preliminary costings suggest equivalent harm
from impact on others as on drinkers
• Responsible drinkers should not be penalised by alcohol
policy
• Drinkers have the right to make informed choice about
alcohol use
• Beneficiaries of marketing are producers
not consumers
• Marketing creates demand and reduces
possibility of informed choice
In conclusion
• Goal of alcohol policy to reduce harm via
reduction of heavy use
• Goal differs from tobacco but policy
mechanisms similar
• Marketing a key policy area
• Need for active evidence based debate
and collaboration between national
governments, intergov (WHO) and NGO
sector