New research on alcohol marketing suggests current regulations don ’t work

Research published today in the journal Addiction provides new insights into global alcohol marketing, its regulation and its potential impacts on youth consumption. The journal supplement, supported with funding from Alcohol Research UK and the Institute of Alcohol Studies, analyses the effectiveness of existing regulations and voluntary codes, especially in preventing young people from being exposed to alcohol brands and adverts. It also contains further evidence linking exposure to alcohol marketing with alcohol use. The findings largely confirm what much prior research has suggested: that there is a relationship between marketing and consumption, and that existing regulations are often circumvented or are ineffective in achieving their key goals. The latter is especially the case in social media marketing where brand messages and user-generated content often blur, and where large amounts of content simply pass below the regulatory radar. Among today’s papers, a review of studies published since 2008 finds further evidence that young people who report higher exposure to alcohol brands are more likely to drink, and drink more, than those who report seeing fewer adverts. Of course, there are many potential causes of youth drinking and brand recognition may reflect, as well as cause, higher consumption. It is, in reality, impossible to provide a ‘smoking gun’ that can isolate the impact of marketing from all the other social and psychological reasons that drive indi...
Source: Alcohol Research UK - Category: Addiction Authors: Tags: News Source Type: news