Ahead of Saturday’s Six Nations match against France, when thousands of children in Ireland and elsewhere will once again be exposed to saturation alcohol marketing – using the fig leaf of 0.0 – Alcohol Action Ireland (AAI) is calling on the Minister for Health Jennifer Carroll MacNeill to take decisive action and close the loophole regarding the advertising of zero-alcohol products that use the same master branding as their full-strength equivalents in places that are designated off-limits by Public Health (Alcohol) Act (PHAA).
The PHAA has two main goals: to reduce alcohol consumption at a population level and to protect children from the predatory marketing practices of an industry whose product kills four people a day in Ireland. Alcohol marketing to children is known to be a key driver of both initiating alcohol use by children and increasing use if they have already started drinking. 50,000 children in Ireland start to drink every year and 37% of 15-24 year olds who drink have an alcohol use disorder.
AAI CEO Dr Sheila Gilheany said: “One of the ways the legislation seeks to protect children is by banning alcohol advertising in certain places including on the field of play during sports events, because 7 out of 10 of the top programmes watched by children are sporting events. However, just as restrictions under the PHHA came into force, big alcohol brands began circumventing the law by advertising zero-alcohol products using the same master branding, a move that former Minister for Health Stephen Donnelly labelled ‘cynical’.
“During the recent Six Nationsmatch against England, the Guinness logo, with 0.0 tagged on, was emblazoned in the centre of the pitch. The law is clear: commercial communication that directly or indirectlypromotes alcohol using any trade description, i.e. trademark, emblem or logo, is prohibited. Yet we still see alcohol branding being advertised in places it’s supposed to be banned, including also advertising close to schools and on public transport. It’s clear that the ‘0% alcohol’ is a smoke screen – it’s 100% alcohol marketing. Research has shown that 40% of adults recall seeing alcohol branding on public transport despite it being banned. The question is what are the government going to do about it?”
To further protect children from the direct or indirect promotion of alcohol products, the PHAA also legislated for a daytime broadcasting ban on alcohol advertising with no advertisements for alcohol products on television from 3am to 9pm and on radio on a weekday from 3pm to 10am the following morning. This modest measure, after a bizarrely long delay, finally came into operation on 10 January this year yet during the live coverage of the Ireland v England rugby match a few weeks later we saw alcohol marketing being broadcast into the homes of hundreds of thousands of people, doubtless tens of thousands of the viewers were children. The advertising was a seamless blend between Guinness and Guinness 0.0 using identical branding across ads on hoardings and ads on the field of play.
Dr Gilheany continued: “What is the point of our legislation if it is simply being overridden by industry actors? This time last year AAI called on government to take a legal challenge to allow the courts decide if the PHAA is being flouted. At the time AAI stated that if this is not done, it is essentially saying that the industry gets to set the goal posts when it comes to alcohol marketing regulations. Yet here we are a year later and the amount of alcohol marketing in restricted areas seems to have gotten worse.
“The alcohol industry will try to use any perceived loophole to get around regulation on their product. In the absence of any legal action, we are calling on the Minister for Health to close the loophole and ensure that zero-alcohol products that use the same master branding are treated the same as their full-strength equivalents when it comes to marketing regulations. After all, the PHAA was designed to protect children and we need to start looking at zero-alcohol advertising through their eyes – the 0.0 makes 0.0 difference to them. It is the job of government to protect its citizens, especially children, and this is one area that needs to be addressed urgently.”
Kathryn Walsh, former Senator and Director of Policy and Advocacy at the National Youth Council of Ireland, who support the campaign, said: “All marketing channels matter in terms of exposure of young people to alcohol marketing practices- whether we see 0.0% alcohol products in sports, on billboards, on TV or online. What we see now with this advertising practice is not a creative interpretation of the rules, but blatant exploitation.
“Companies are using brand advertising via 0.0% alcohol products to increase brand awareness – which in turn leads to increased consumption. Young people are especially susceptible to this – familiarisation with a brand early on in life leads to brand allegiance, which then becomes brand consumerism. 0.0% alcohol product advertising and brand advertising is a fig leaf for alcohol advertising and consumer recruitment, with young people being the target.
“Current policies are not working to protect young people from pervasive advertising and marketing of alcohol. Alcohol companies have diverted large swathes of their marketing spend into the sort of high-impact brand image advertisement that sees, for example, sporting events synonymous with alcohol brands and companies. This needs to stop.”
ENDS
