argumentative essay about alcohol advertising should be banned

Ban on All Advertising of Alcohol Essay

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Introduction

Works cited.

The major reason for the call to outlaw advertising of alcohol is its abuse. The term abuse can have various meanings from one section of society to another. For example, to a college student, drinking to the extent of vomiting uncontrollably is abuse. In religious groups, even a taste of alcohol is termed to be illegal. In a family setting, abuse of alcohol occurs when couples are in constant strife. Most societies have however illegalized underage drinking.

According to a WHO Charter, all states have the responsibility of ensuring that all children are raised in an environment secluded from negative influences and consequences of liquor consumption. This includes the promotion of these beverages. For a better understanding of this, the agreement suggests that all states exercise strict control on adverts addressed to young people.

However, reports from the U.S and elsewhere in the world indicate that beer companies spend a lot of money on promotional activities either directly or indirectly. The activities usually take the form of organizing sports contests, academic sponsorship, music concerts, or support to charity organizations. To make matters even worse, most of the alcohol adverts tend to neglect references to the bad effects associated with the consumption making it look like an alternative to soft drinks.

Most alcohol adverts especially on TV use animation, music, comedy, and celebrities to pass across their message. Research has established that this technique is more appealing to teenagers and adolescents who believe that the adverts target them. Some of the adverts also associate drinking with excellent and sporting success hence influencing the emotionally sensitive young minds. A recently concluded research indicated that most young people will recognize many beer brands labels that the portraits of their former presidents. This is because alcoholic beverages ads are more popular than the patriotism associated with the recognition of the national heroes by the younger generations.

Other than pulling underage people into excessive consumption, econometric techniques have indicated the close relations between alcohol adverting and the rise of accidents. An example is the lifting of a ban on television and radio advertising of spirits after 1996 which led to the rise in road accidents to about 3000 annually. This heavy loss of life results from cases where individuals attending social parties involving alcoholic drinks ignore the role of designated drivers. Some of the companies run adverts which can at times make drivers lose concentration from the steering wheel to thoughts of pleasure associated with alcohol drinking leading to road accidents.

Medical researchers in New Zealand have categorized alcohol as a psychoactive drug. This is due to its ability to alter the mind by making one be subconscious. In this state, one can unconsciously engage in some dangerous activities including sexual immorality thus increasing risks to STDs and HIV infections. The subliminal state can create physical body injuries while walking due to the inability of maintaining a good body posture. This has led some religious groups to blame alcohol advertisements for promoting promiscuity and moral decay in societies, hence support for the ban on alcohol.

On the other hand, breast cancer is greater among women who drink than those who abstain. The other health risk among these individuals is complete liver damage translating into hepatitis C. Therefore, patients found with the illness must quit drinking completely. All these health problem cases will continue to be on the rise as long as alcohol consumption increases through advertisements in the national mass media.

Despite all these misgivings, breweries and advertising industries argue that alcoholic drinks are legal products contributing tax to the economy. To them, alcohol is legal and should be advertised. They claim that were the advertisements to be banned, it would greatly affect businesses and the media. They also say that outlawing the drink is not justifiable because advertising is only concerned with promoting an individual product’s sales and that there’s no proof to relate the adverts and the number of harms associated with alcohol consumption. This means that advertising is not concerned with new membership recruitment into becoming drinkers of a particular brand but just raises the sales within the existing customers. The other point is that successful advertisement will increase the company’s market share at the expense of fellow competitors’ share index in the business.

In siding with the advertisement and brewery industries, those opposing the ban on liquor drinks adverts have indicated that alcohol consumption has many health benefits if used correctly. One of the positive impacts of alcohol consumption on the body is that it reduces the risk of a heart attack. Cardiovascular health improves by lowering heart disease or stroke based on the sick-quitter theory. From this point of view, it is right to argue that the liquor drinks’ advertisement is less like promoting a curative remedy but not illicit and abusive drinks.

The health benefits of alcohol mostly occur to moderate drinkers leading to a longer life than abstainers or those drinking a lot. In addition to a reduction in the possibility of a heart attack, consumption of alcohol reduces the likelihood of hypertension, Alzheimer’s, common cold, and high blood pressure. Other possible conditions minimized by moderated alcoholic drinking include stress, osteoporosis and rheumatoid arthritis. Therefore, moderated drinking can be important for healthy living just like eating a well-balanced diet and regular exercising. Therefore, imposing a ban on advertising of such important products in the human lifestyle, just because some people misuse it, will amount to increasing the citizens’ susceptibility to poor health and lower life expectancy.

The rise in alcohol adverts appearing on different television channels in Colombia led to increased survivability among patients with heart attacks, who admitted to being moderate drinkers. According to medical research, moderate consumption of alcohol throughout the year reduces the risk of dying in case of serious myocardial infection, and men drinking frequently after a cardiac attack are not likely to experience it again unlike the none-drinkers. These kinds of gain will be lost if the ban on the advertisement of alcohol is enforced. The reason for this is that liquor drinks help in controlling and repairing damages in the heart following an attack.

Despite condemnation for evil deeds in society, alcohol consumption can also offer solutions to people suffering from obesity by its ability to accelerate the libido of the blood hence destroying bad cholesterol as well as improving the blood clotting ability-checking bleeding in case of injury. Therefore, the ban on alcohol will deny the public to access different brands of products important for their daily health. (Biays & Wershoven 232)

Though alcohol has its benefits to the human body, its side effects far outweigh the benefits. Alcohol advertisements should not be carried out during prime time on national broadcasters. The picture portrayed by these adverts that one will feel good after taking beer should also be discouraged at all costs. Underage people should also not be allowed to play an active role in these campaigns. The ban on underage drinking should be enforced in every state and those who ignore it prosecuted. Beer companies should also show the negative side of drinking in order to allow people to make informed choices. At the end of the day, we should ask ourselves if we want to build a nation of working people or drinking people. If we evaluate everything, all of us will conclude and with good reason that alcohol advertising should be banned.

Biays, John, & Wershoven, Carol. Along these Lines: Writing Paragraphs and Essays .5 th ed.Prentice Hall, 2008.

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• Prohibition Period in the USA History: Why the Government Was Trying to Ban Alcohol
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Alcohol And Tobacco Advertising Should Be Heavily Regulated Or Banned Altogether Argumentative Essay

Type of paper: Argumentative Essay

Topic: Business , Health , Products , Company , Alcoholism , Tobacco , Alcohol , Smoking

Published: 03/02/2020

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Alcohol and Tobacco Advertising should be Heavily Regulated or Banned Altogether? Agree or Disagree? In an attempt to reach a massive potential market, companies have array of options to choose from, but over time advertisement has proven to be an avoidable choice in this pursuit. Since all the companies have the right to buy air time on any media to advertise their product, alcohol and tobacco manufacturing companies have taken this advantage to spread their products (Harrison, Roy, and Waun 59-65). However, there have been debates for decades now, whether these two products need to abolished. Because high health risks are associated with consumption of alcohol and tobacco products, women, adolescences, and expectant mother are the most vulnerable. Besides being naturally dangerous, they are causal factors of various diseases. These include varied cancers, respiratory complications, liver cirrhosis, and heart diseases (Watson, Victor, and Sherma 284-289). In cases of long term use, they result in deaths. Therefore, since lives are precious than economic gains attain from alcohol and tobacco, their advertisements should be block and efforts directed to sweep them out of the community completely. During the advertisement of alcohol and tobacco product, persuasive approaches are implemented where images of health people drinking and smoking while having merry moment are used. According to research by Haustein and David, the mythical imageries applied have a tremendous impact on adolescence (5-8). Annually, there have been programs trying to save fifty percent of adolescences indulged in these harmful substances, but with the frequent adverts on media, the effort and resource channeled for it go to waste. As a result, school dropouts, early pregnancy, high infection rates of sexually transmitted diseases has been registered in adolescences under influence of alcohol and tobacco. Notably, their academic performances also deteriorate alongside their health (Schmitz, and Richard 68). Ultimately, they become societal bothers since they stair head societal problems including crimes, rapes cases, and poverty. Therefore, to curb these menaces and also save the innocent adolescences, alcohol and tobacco advertisement masterminding the whole mess should be abolished. When it comes to diseases, statistics depicts that approximately more than a million people perish from direct and indirect effect of alcohol and tobacco annually in United States alone. Cigarettes alone, contributes seventy percent of the statistics through cancer and respiratory related infections (Bayard 34). Also, nonsmokers who by accident inhale unfiltered chemical content of tobacco smoke are highly vulnerable. Pregnant women using both or either tobacco or alcohol risk themselves and the babies they are exacting. As a result, they are likely to give birth to babies with fatal alcohol disorder (FAD) and or fatal alcohol effects (FAE) (Watson, Victor, and Sherma 305). Further, these children are prone of suffering mental disorientations in the future. On the other hand, deaths emanating from a fire started by carelessly dropped cigarette filters have claimed thousands of lives every year. Considered the two in terms of human health and physical safety and wellbeing, cigarettes and alcohol advertisement should be abolished Economically, these two products are among the highly taxed thereby, making them large gross domestic product contributor. The heavy taxes levies have been applied in an endeavor to discourage the users (Bayard 43). But, there are advertisements by the companies to count tackle that, where consumers of these drugs have an opportunity to win prizes out of continues consumptions. This has not only swayed people, but it has also deteriorated users of these substances economically. Both being addictive substances, their users are unable to control their consumption rate and this has impacted financial irresponsibility on parents affected since they overspend on the drags forgetting their family responsibilities (Harrison, Roy, and Waun 78). Therefore, why should alcohol and tobacco advertisement still stand with these kinds of damages they cause? In summation, health hazards impacted by both alcohol and tobacco as a result of misleading adverts is worrying and need urgent responses measures to curb further damages. Lack of informed and autonomous decisions by adolescences makes them gullible to false adverts on alcohol and tobacco. In totality, this drugs need to be completely made illegal starting with completely banning their adverts.

Works Cited

Bayard, Steven P. Respiratory Health Effects of Passive Smoking: Lung Cancer and Other Disorders. Washington, DC: Office of Health and Environmental Assessment, Office of Research and Development, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 1992. Print. Harrison, Louis B, Roy B. Sessions, and Waun K. Hong. Head and Neck Cancer: A Multidisciplinary Approach. Philadelphia, Pa: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, 2008. Print. Haustein, K.-O, and David Groneberg. Tobacco or Health?Berlin: Springer, 2010. Print. Schmitz, Cecilia M, and Richard A. Gray. Smoking: The Health Consequences of Tobacco Use : an Annotated Bibliography with Analytical Introduction. Ann Arbor, Mich: Pierian Press, 1995. Print. Watson, Ronald R, Victor R. Preedy, and Sherma Zibadi. Alcohol, Nutrition, and Health Consequences. New York: Humana Press, 2013. Print.

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Alcohol Advertising: What does the evidence show?

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Economic Affairs (43.2)

The Mirage of Swedish Socialism: The Economic History of a Welfare State

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Introduction, the impact of alcohol advertising bans.

“Saffer’s finding of significant negative associations between advertising bans and alcohol consumption and cirrhosis and motor vehicle deaths are generally refuted when cultural traits of individual countries are accounted for, consumption is disaggregated, and more appropriate statistical models are employed. Indeed, the results are often the opposite of what would be expected if advertising bans are actually effective.”

Alcohol Advertising Expenditure and Consumption

“Advertising is found to have had no significant effect upon the ‘product composition’ or ‘level’ of total alcoholic drink consumption in the UK over the period from 1964-1996, and this result is robust with respect to variations in the specification of functional form. The consumption of alcoholic drink is affected by relative prices, total consumer budgeted expenditures and, to some extent, by autonomous shifts in tastes. These results imply that manipulation of the aggregate level of alcohol consumption (and its distribution between beer, spirits and wine) is not an easy matter for policy makers to achieve.”

Advertising exposure and consumption: observational studies

“For instance, if teenagers assume it is socially ‹cool’ to remember many ads or to drink beer on weekends, they may give high scores to both questions (giving rise to a correlation), regardless of how they actually behave. Another common version of this bias is that participants may try to guess the purpose or the research question of the study and then deliberately give answers that ‹confirm’ the question by the researchers. (E.g., if teenagers guess that researchers are studying the relationship between advertising and alcohol consumption, they may deliberately say that they have seen numerous ads and consumed a lot of alcohol, regardless of the actual number of ads seen and amount of alcohol consumed).”

“If alcohol advertising could actually induce people to drink (who were otherwise not so inclined), one would expect a profit-maximising firm to advertise in a wider variety of media read by different consumers than the ones who consume the media firms currently use.” (ibid.)

Randomised controlled trials

• A Cochrane Review is a systematic review of randomised controlled trials. Cochrane Reviews are widely considered to be the ‘gold standard’ of evidence in healthcare and health policy.
• i.e. lower rates of alcohol consumption and the implementation of alcohol advertising bans can both be independently attributed to a third variable (public opposition to alcohol).
• Non-susceptible young people are defined as those who tell the researchers that they definitely will not drink alcohol in the near future.
• Another study by these researchers, which did not appear in the review, found ‘no evidence that exposure to alcohol advertising increases consumption in the short or long term’ (Kohn et al. 1984).
• Although public health academics often assume that an increase or decrease in per capita consumption will lead to a commensurate change in alcohol-related health harms, this has often been contradicted by real-world evidence (Snowdon 2022).

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• v.9(2); 2009 Apr 1

Is it time to ban alcohol advertising?

Peter anderson.

Girona, Spain

Children and adolescents are particularly vulnerable to the harmful effects of alcohol, with heavy drinking risking impaired brain development and future alcohol dependence. Advertisements increase expectancies about alcohol, leading to a greater likelihood of drinking. A systematic review of 13 longitudinal studies of over 38,000 young people found convincing evidence of an impact of media exposure and alcohol advertising on subsequent alcohol use, including initiation of drinking and heavier drinking among existing drinkers. All European countries, with the exception of the UK, have a ban on one or more types of advertising. Since self-regulation is reported as failing to prevent marketing which has an impact on younger people, and since advertising commonly crosses country borders, there is an argument to approximate advertising rules across Europe banning alcohol advertising targeted at young people, a highly cost-effective measure to reduce harmful alcohol use, and one supported by European citizens and case law.

Introduction

Children and adolescents have greater vulnerability to the harmful effects of alcohol than adults. As well as usually being physically smaller, they lack experience of drinking and its effects. They have no context or reference point for assessing or regulating their drinking and, furthermore, they have built up no tolerance. From mid-adolescence to early adulthood there are major increases in the amount and frequency of alcohol consumption and alcohol-related problems. Those with heavier consumption in their mid-teens tend to be those with heavier consumption, alcohol dependence and alcohol-related harm, including poorer mental health and education outcome, and increased risk of crime, in early adulthood. 1 During adolescence, alcohol can lead to structural changes in the hippocampus (a part of the brain involved in the learning process) and at high levels can permanently impair brain development. 2 Drinking by adolescents and young adults is associated with road traffic injury and death, suicide and depression, missed classes and decreased academic performance, loss of memory, blackouts, fighting, property damage, peer criticism and broken friendships, date rape, and unprotected sexual intercourse that increases the risk of sexually transmitted diseases, HIV infection and unplanned pregnancy. 3

In 2006, over one in five of 11–15 year olds in England reported drinking alcohol in the week prior to the interview. Although this proportion has been slowly declining in recent years, among those who drank alcohol the average weekly consumption has almost doubled from 5.3 units (42 g alcohol) in 1990 to 10.4 units (83 g alcohol) in 2000. 4 An independent review of the effects of alcohol pricing and promotion concluded that:

Regardless of their explicit intention there is evidence for an effect of alcohol advertisements on underage drinkers. Consistent with this, evidence suggests that exposure to such interventions as TV, music videos and billboards, which contain alcohol advertisements, predicts onset of youth drinking and increased drinking. As a consequence one may conclude that restricting the volume of advertisements and merchandising is likely to reduce consumption and subsequent harm. 5

This paper, based on a lecture given at the Royal College of Physicians in 2007, gives nine arguments to inform whether or not it is time to ban the advertising of alcohol.

Advertising of tobacco products is banned

Based on quite limited evidence the advertising of tobacco products is effectively banned throughout the European Union (EU). 6 , 7 Two arguments are often put forward that alcohol is not the same as tobacco, and therefore, policy should be different:

• there is far greater harm associated with the use of tobacco than alcohol
• any level of tobacco consumption poses health risks, whereas for alcohol it is only excessive consumption that poses risks.

However, these arguments do not stand scrutiny. First, the World Health Organization's Global Burden of Disease study, which developed a measure of the extent to which different health risk behaviours reduced life expectancy and quality of life, Disability Adjusted Life Years, found that in the year 2000 tobacco contributed 4.1% of the total burden of premature death or disability, and alcohol 4.0%. Since then, alcohol's share has increased to 4.6%. 8 Second, when examining alcohol's contribution to premature death, the risk that lifetime death is caused by an alcohol-related illness increases linearly with the volume of alcohol consumed from a zero level of consumption. 9

Alcohol cheats the brain

The pharmacological effects of alcohol on behavioural decision-making show that alcohol has a predictable unfair advantage over other products. 10 Like all addictive drugs, alcohol specifically disrupts calculations made by the brain's reward circuitry. To determine the value of naturally rewarding substances, the brain conducts an in-depth calculation of the impact of consumption of the substance on the consumer within the current and historical environment. Alcohol short circuits this assessment by pharmacologically augmenting a signal indicating the difference between the predicted value of the reward and the observed reward, such that the circuit mistakenly calculates that it underestimated the value of consuming alcohol, regardless of whether the drinker was helped or hurt as a result of drinking. As the brain corrects its ‘underestimates’, it increases expectations about the value of alcohol consumption. This leads the drinker to overvalue alcohol and thus favour working harder to obtain it, even if it provides no objective or subjective benefit to the user. Thus, alcoholic products include a chemical that directly distorts the brain's decisions about how much work to devote to consuming them, thus ensuring that people will pay more to get an alcoholic drink than it is worth.

Alcohol advertisements increase the desire to drink alcohol

Alcohol advertising is one of the many factors that have the potential to encourage adolescent drinking. 11 For young people who have not started to drink, expectancies are influenced by normative assumptions about teenage drinking as well as through the observation of drinking by parents, peers, and role models in the mass media. Research has linked exposure to portrayals of alcohol use in the mass media with the development of positive drinking expectancies by children and adolescents. 11 Young people with more positive affective responses to alcohol advertising hold more favourable drinking expectancies, perceive greater social approval for drinking, believe drinking is more common among peers and adults, and intend to drink more as adults. All these beliefs interact to produce a greater likelihood of drinking, or intention to drink within the near future. Adolescents aged 14 to 17 years with alcohol use disorders also show substantially greater brain activation to pictures of alcoholic beverages than control youths, predominantly in brain areas linked to reward, desire, and positive affect. 12 The degree of brain response to the alcohol pictures is highest in those who consume more drinks per month and report greater desires to drink.

Alcohol advertisements increase young people's drinking

A recent systematic review to assess the impact of alcohol advertising and media exposure on future adolescent alcohol use identified 13 longitudinal studies of a total of over 38,000 young people. 13 Twelve of the 13 studies concluded an impact of exposure on subsequent alcohol use, including initiation of drinking and heavier drinking among existing drinkers, with a dose–response relationship in all studies that reported such exposure and analysis. The 13th study, which tested the impact of outdoor advertising placed near schools, failed to detect an impact on alcohol use, but found an impact on intentions to use.

For example, Ellickson et al examined the relationship between a range of advertisement exposures, over the course of one year, and subsequent drinking among US adolescents age 12 to 13 years followed-up for at least two years, and assessed whether exposure to a prevention programme mitigated any such relationship. 14 Of the 1,206 grade 7 non-drinkers, 48% consumed alcohol during the previous year at grade 9. Bivariate relationships found a significant impact of all types of alcohol advertisement exposure on initiation of drinking. Controlling for exposure to all different types of advertising as well as the impact of the prevention programme, exposure to beer concession stands at sports or music events predicted drinking onset for non-drinkers in the previous 12 months (OR=1.42, p<0.05). Of the 1,905 grade 7 drinkers, 77% consumed alcohol in the previous year at grade 9. Again, controlling for exposure to all different types of advertising as well as the impact of the prevention programme, exposure to beer concession stands at sports or music events predicted frequency of drinking among existing drinkers in the previous 12 months (coefficient=0.09, p<0.05), as did exposure to magazines with alcohol advertisements (coefficient=0.10, p<0.05). Similarly, Collins et al carried out a school-based longitudinal survey which evaluated the impact of exposure of alcohol marketing on beer use among 1,786 grade 6 students (11–12 year olds) one year later. 15 The joint effect of exposure to advertisements from all sources (F (8, 28)=8.36, p<0.0001), and from three television sources (F (3, 33)=3.35, p<0.05), were significant. Of youth in the 75th percentile of alcohol marketing exposure at grade 6, 20% reported past year beer drinking at grade 7, compared with 13% in the 25th percentile.

The results of the longitudinal studies are consistent with the findings of econometric studies, in which, for example, a meta-analysis of 132 studies which provided 322 estimated advertising elasticities, found a positive impact of advertising on consumption (coefficient=0.029), when controlling for alcohol price and income. 16

Alcohol advertising rules require approximation across Europe, allowing for the opportunity of stronger restrictions

A study of 24 European countries found that all had at least one regulation that covers alcohol marketing and advertising, with 49 statutory and 27 non-statutory regulations overall. 17 All countries, with the exception of the UK, had a ban of one or more types of advertising. Statutory regulations were more likely to cover volume restrictions than non-statutory regulations. There were clear differences between European countries' laws, regulations and administrative provisions on the advertising of alcohol products. Such advertising commonly crosses country borders or involves events organised on an international level. As has been the case with tobacco products, the differences in national legislation are likely to give rise to increasing barriers to the free movement between countries of the products or services that serve as the support for such advertising. Thus, there is a strong argument that these barriers should be eliminated and, to this end, the rules relating to the advertising of alcoholic products should, in specific cases, be approximated across Europe. As was the case with tobacco, and given the extent of existing bans for certain products and media, there is a need to specify the extent to which alcohol advertising in certain categories of media and publications is allowed. 18

Self-regulation is not the answer

In several European countries, there is a reliance on ‘self-regulation’ – voluntary systems implemented by economic operators, including advertising, media and alcohol producers. However, evidence from a number of studies shows that these voluntary systems do not prevent the kind of marketing which has an impact on younger people. Self-regulation seems to work only to the extent that there is a current and credible threat of government regulation. For example, in Australia, following a formal review in 2003, the Ministerial Council on Drug Strategy proposed a revised Alcoholic Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC), which came into operation in 2004. From May 2004 until March 2005 television and magazine advertising campaigns were monitored for alcohol products. 19 Over this period, 14 complaints against alcohol advertisements were lodged with the self-regulatory board, and the study authors recruited an independent expert panel to assess the advertisements and complaints. In eight of the 14 cases a majority of the judges perceived the advertisement to be in breach of the code, and in no cases did a majority perceive no breach. Conversely, however, none of the complaints were upheld by the Advertising Standards Board (ASB).

The public supports stricter regulations

A 2006 Euorbarometer survey found that 76% of the EU population would approve the banning of alcohol advertising targeting young people in all member states. 20 Every second respondent (50%) said that they ‘agree totally’ with this idea. A country-by-country analysis shows that in all polled countries the majority of respondents would favour such a ban, with 71% of the UK population agreeing.

European case law supports stricter regulations

In 2002, the French government was taken to court, alleging that its advertising law, by prohibiting alcohol advertising on boardings visible during the retransmission of bi-national sporting events on TV, entailed restrictions on the freedom to provide advertising and television broadcasting services. In other words, it was not possible to re-broadcast British football matches in France. However, the European Court of Justice ruled in favour of the French law, noting that it is in fact undeniable that advertising acts as an encouragement to consumption; the French rules on television advertising are appropriate to ensure their aim of protecting public health; and that they do not go beyond what is necessary to achieve such an objective. 21

Health impact assessment predicts the health impact and cost

Using data from international time-series analyses, the World Health Organization's CHOICE project modelled the impact of an advertising ban in the EU. 22 The model estimated that a ban on advertising implemented throughout the EU could prevent 5% of all alcohol-related ill-health, at an overall cost of €95 million each year. With a cost-effectiveness ratio of €500 per year of ill-health and premature mortality prevented in western Europe, an advertising ban would be about half as cost-effective as a tax increase (€241), but nearly four times as cost-effective as an early identification and brief advice programme in primary care (€1,959).

Young people are particularly vulnerable to alcohol, and to alcohol advertising which is commonly targeted at them. Alcohol advertisements are related to young people's expectancies about alcohol and their desire to consume it, and a recent systematic review has found evidence that alcohol advertisements increase the likelihood of young people starting to drink, the amount they drink, and the amount consumed on any one occasion. Experience demonstrates that it is possible to regulate commercial communications in traditional and non-traditional media, with, for example, the EU 2003 tobacco directive banning the advertising of tobacco products in the broadcast and print media, and relevant sport sponsorship. Thus, it is feasible to ban alcohol advertising, which, for advertising targeting young people, would be supported by three quarters of European citizens.

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Does banning or restricting advertising for alcohol result in less drinking of alcohol?

Review question

In this review we ask the question whether banning or restricting the advertising of alcohol in any form will lead to people drinking less alcohol. The form of the ban could include banning alcohol advertisements on television, the internet or billboards, or in magazines. We were also interested in the harms that banning advertisements may cause, such as reducing profits in the alcohol and advertising industries, and whether governments would lose taxes if alcohol purchases went down after a ban.

The misuse of alcohol is a significant risk factor for ill health, injury (e.g. through violent behaviour or road traffic collisions), death and social problems around the world. Advertising to promote the drinking of alcohol is widespread. Banning or restricting the advertising of alcohol has been suggested as a possible way to lower the use of alcohol in the general public and to stop young people from starting drinking at an early age.

Study characteristics

The evidence we present is current to May 2014. We found four studies that evaluated the restriction or banning of alcohol advertising via any format. One was a small randomised controlled trial (RCT) that evaluated drinking behaviour in 80 young men in the Netherlands exposed to movies with either a high or low alcohol content combined with a commercial with either a neutral content (interpreted as a ban on alcohol advertising) or a high alcohol content. The other three studies were interrupted time series (ITS) studies. ITS studies are studies in which changes, usually in the general public, are measured at various points before, during and after an intervention such as a change in policy. Two of the three ITS studies evaluated what happened after an advertising ban was introduced by two different Canadian provincial governments. The third ITS study evaluated what happened after a ban was lifted after being in place for 50 years in another Canadian province. Each study evaluated a different category of ban (either partial or full).

None of the above studies were funded by the alcohol or advertising industries.

Key results

The data arising from the included studies did not show a clear effect either for or against the banning or restriction of alcohol advertising.

In the RCT, young men who watched movies with a low-alcohol content drank less than men who watched movies with a high-alcohol content. Young men exposed to commercials with a neutral content compared with those exposed to commercials for alcohol drank less. The trial was one and a half hours, so we do not know how long beyond the trial these effects lasted. The trial did not report on any harmful outcomes.

The results from the three ITS studies were inconsistent. We statistically combined the results of the two studies that assessed what happened after a ban was introduced. This showed an overall increase in beer consumption in the general population following the introduction of the ban, but the results were uncertain and could also be consistent with no difference or an overall decrease in alcohol consumption. The third ITS study, which evaluated the lifting of a total ban on all forms of alcohol advertising to a ban on spirits advertising only, also found uncertain results. None of the studies reported on any harms arising from the bans.

Quality of the evidence

Overall we judged the quality of evidence to be very low in the RCT. This was based on the fact that there were problems with the study methodology, the population included men only and the results were not very accurate. In the ITS studies, the quality was also judged to be very low due to problems with the study methodology and the results not being precise.

Conclusions

The review cannot recommend for or against banning alcohol advertising. Governments that are considering implementing alcohol advertising bans would be advised to implement the ban in a research environment and monitor the effects over time to build the evidence base.

There is a lack of robust evidence for or against recommending the implementation of alcohol advertising restrictions. Advertising restrictions should be implemented within a high-quality, well-monitored research programme to ensure the evaluation over time of all relevant outcomes in order to build the evidence base.

Alcohol is estimated to be the fifth leading risk factor for global disability-adjusted life years. Restricting or banning alcohol advertising may reduce exposure to the risk posed by alcohol at the individual and general population level. To date, no systematic review has evaluated the effectiveness, possible harms and cost-effectiveness of this intervention.

To evaluate the benefits, harms and costs of restricting or banning the advertising of alcohol, via any format, compared with no restrictions or counter-advertising, on alcohol consumption in adults and adolescents.

We searched the Cochrane Drugs and Alcohol Group Specialised Register (May 2014); CENTRAL (Issue 5, 2014); MEDLINE (1966 to 28 May 2014); EMBASE (1974 to 28 May 2014); PsychINFO (June 2013); and five alcohol and marketing databases in October 2013. We also searched seven conference databases and www.clinicaltrials.gov and http://apps.who.int/trialsearch/ in October 2013. We checked the reference lists of all studies identified and those of relevant systematic reviews or guidelines, and contacted researchers, policymakers and other experts in the field for published or unpublished data, regardless of language.

We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs), controlled clinical trials, prospective and retrospective cohort studies, controlled before-and-after studies and interrupted time series (ITS) studies that evaluated the restriction or banning of alcohol advertising via any format including advertising in the press, on the television, radio, or internet, via billboards, social media or product placement in films. The data could be at the individual (adults or adolescent) or population level.

We used the standard methodological procedures expected by The Cochrane Collaboration.

We included one small RCT (80 male student participants conducted in the Netherlands and published in 2009) and three ITS studies (general population studies in Canadian provinces conducted in the 1970s and 80s).

The RCT found that young men exposed to movies with a low-alcohol content drank less than men exposed to movies with a high-alcohol content (mean difference (MD) -0.65 drinks; 95% CI -1.2, -0.07; p value = 0.03, very-low-quality evidence). Young men exposed to commercials with a neutral content compared with those exposed to commercials for alcohol drank less (MD -0.73 drinks; 95% CI -1.30, -0.16; p value = 0.01, very-low-quality evidence). Outcomes were assessed immediately after the end of the intervention (lasting 1.5 hours), so no follow-up data were available. Using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation approach, the quality of the evidence was rated as very low due to a serious risk of bias, serious indirectness of the included population and serious level of imprecision.

Two of the ITS studies evaluated the implementation of an advertising ban and one study evaluated the lifting of such a ban. Each of the three ITS studies evaluated a different type of ban (partial or full) compared with different degrees of restrictions or no restrictions during the control period. The results from the three ITS studies were inconsistent. A meta-analysis of the two studies that evaluated the implementation of a ban showed an overall mean non-significant increase in beer consumption in the general population of 1.10% following the ban (95% CI -5.26, 7.47; p value = 0.43; I 2 = 83%, very-low-quality evidence). This finding is consistent with an increase, no difference, or a decrease in alcohol consumption. In the study evaluating the lifting of a total ban on all forms of alcohol advertising to a partial ban on spirits advertising only, which utilised an Abrupt Auto-regressive Integrated Moving Average model, the volume of all forms of alcohol sales decreased by 11.11 kilolitres (95% CI -27.56, 5.34; p value = 0.19) per month after the ban was lifted. In this model, beer and wine sales increased per month by 14.89 kilolitres (95% CI 0.39, 29.39; p value = 0.04) and 1.15 kilolitres (95% CI -0.91, 3.21; p value = 0.27), respectively, and spirits sales decreased statistically significantly by 22.49 kilolitres (95% CI -36.83, -8.15; p value = 0.002). Using the GRADE approach, the evidence from the ITS studies was rated as very low due to a high risk of bias arising from a lack of randomisation and imprecision in the results.

No other prespecified outcomes (including economic loss or hardship due to decreased alcohol sales) were addressed in the included studies and no adverse effects were reported in any of the studies. None of the studies were funded by the alcohol or advertising industries.

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Bans and comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, sponsorship and promotion are impactful and cost-effective measures. Enacting and enforcing bans or comprehensive restrictions on exposure to them in the digital world will bring public health benefits and help protect children, adolescents and abstainers from the pressure to start consuming alcohol.

New WHO report on cross-border marketing of alcohol

Reducing the harm from alcohol – by regulating cross-border alcohol marketing, advertising...

Reducing the harm from alcohol by regulating cross-border alcohol marketing, advertising and promotion:...

This short document summarizes the key content of the WHO report Reducing the harm from alcohol by regulating cross-border alcohol marketing, advertising and...

Press release

WHO highlights glaring gaps in regulation of alcohol marketing across borders

Regulating cross-border marketing of alcohol

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What to do?

• bans or comprehensive restrictions on exposure to alcohol advertising can be enacted and enforced by setting up regulatory or co-regulatory frameworks, preferably with a legislative basis, and supporting them when appropriate by self-regulatory measures that contribute in particular to eliminating the marketing and advertising of alcoholic products to minors;
• public agencies or independent bodies can develop effective systems of surveillance of marketing of alcohol products;
• an effective administrative and deterrence systems for infringements of marketing restrictions can be set up.

Reducing the impact of marketing – particularly on young people, adolescents and children – is an important consideration in preventing and reducing the harmful use of alcohol. It is very difficult to target young adult consumers without exposing large numbers of adolescents under the legal age to the same marketing. The exposure of children and young people to appealing marketing is of particular concern, as is the targeting of new markets in developing and low- and middle-income countries that currently have a low prevalence of alcohol consumption or high abstinence rates.

Alcohol is marketed through increasingly sophisticated advertising and promotion techniques which include linking alcohol brands to sports and cultural activities, sponsorships and product placements, and new marketing techniques (e.g. emails, text messaging, podcasts, social media and other communication techniques). The transmission of alcohol marketing messages across national borders and different jurisdictions via channels such as satellite television and the Internet is emerging as a serious concern in some countries.

Advertising restrictions have been assessed as a highly  cost-effective best-buy  intervention for NCD prevention. Because they generally cost little to implement, and since they can influence the initiation of alcohol use and risk behaviour at population level, advertising bans and significant restrictions have the potential to be substantially more  effective  than  more  labour-intensive  interventions  that seek  to prevent or reduce alcohol use at  the individual level.

The purposes of bans or comprehensive restrictions on alcohol advertising, promotion and sponsorship are:

• to prevent young people from being exposed (which is known to influence the decision to start consuming alcohol and to increase  alcohol use);
• to reduce the presence of alcohol cues that can induce reactivity and craving in alcohol-dependent persons; and
• to prevent industry influence on social norms relating to consumption in general, given the negative public health, economic and social consequences of alcohol use.

How to do it?

The global alcohol strategy recommends considering a precautionary approach to protecting young people against these marketing techniques. Further, the political declaration of the 2018 United Nations third high-level meeting of the General Assembly on the prevention and control of NCDs invites the private sector to take concrete steps towards eliminating the marketing and advertising of alcoholic products to minors.

Restricting only one aspect of the marketing mix often results in an expansion of activity in other parts of the mix. In general, the more complete the regulation on marketing activities, the easier it  will be to implement the regulation and the more effective it will be in reducing alcohol-related harm. That is why a comprehensive ban or set of restrictions is preferred.

Such frameworks should ideally incorporate all forms of new and emerging media as well as existing media and other promotional channels. The rapid pace of marketing innovation renders such comprehensive frameworks open to review and updates by regulatory bodies as new technologies and products evolve. Marketing of all types of alcoholic beverages should be regulated equally in all types of media.

Total bans are cost-effective and inexpensive to implement. They require fewer infrastructure for enforcement since violations are likely to be obvious, easy to identify and easy to sanction. The biggest barrier to enforcement is likely to be advertising that crosses national borders, for instance via television or the Internet.

Content restrictions can establish important principles for what is and is not acceptable in alcohol marketing communications There is little disagreement that alcohol marketing communications should not target young people, should be in keeping with national and cultural standards of decency, and should avoid making health, curative or other claims for alcohol. It is common for marketing strategies to include messages related to “responsible or moderate drinking” or a form of health warning prepared by the alcohol industry. These messages are often vague and/or deceptive and should be developed and regulated by the government instead.

Surrogate marketing occurs when companies use products other than alcohol to build alcohol brand familiarity and loyalty among consumers. This has become common in the tobacco industry: as bans on tobacco advertising have proliferated, so have clothing stores and even travel services bearing tobacco brand names. Countries seeking to restrict this kind of activity should look at the tobacco experience for models of how this has been done for tobacco branded products and activities.

Governments should set up effective systems for administration and deterrence of infringements of marketing restrictions. In some jurisdictions, alcohol marketing is controlled through self-regulation by the relevant economic operators, including advertisers, the media and alcohol producers. To  be effective, however, self-regulation requires a clear legislative framework. Furthermore, a self-regulatory system needs enough incentives to succeed; in general, self-regulatory systems are most prominent where pressure from the government or from lawsuits is greatest. As with government regulation, self-regulation should cover the entire range of marketing activity that reaches young people in order to prevent advertisers from simply using newer media to escape regulations. Sanctions and the threat of sanctions are needed to ensure compliance. Monitoring of alcohol marketing practices should be the responsibility of an independent body or a government agency and should be carried out systematically and routinely.

Whom to work with?

The Ministry of Health is the most important government stakeholder because it is responsible for ensuring that public health objectives are integrated into all efforts to regulate alcohol marketing. The health ministry’s main partners are the ministries responsible for regulating commercial communications through broadcast media, non-broadcast media and telecommunications, including the Internet. In addition, the ministries responsible for culture, sports and children may need to be involved. To ensure that all forms of marketing are covered and that no marketing medium escapes regulation, it may be beneficial to establish a permanent task force to review and monitor the relevant regulations.

Other stakeholders include any bodies established by the government to oversee and monitor advertising standards. Again, if different bodies oversee different media, an overall task force is needed.

Alcohol producers, retailers and the marketing industry are normally consulted when the government makes changes in alcohol marketing regulations and practices. However, the published record indicates that, in general, these industry bodies do not support tighter statutory restrictions on marketing practices.

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Technical note

The banning of alcohol advertising remains a hot debate

Lobbied through the Phuza Wize campaign run by the Soul City Institute and championed by the Health Ministry, this ground-breaking legislation aims to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol consumption in South Africa to promote safer drinking.

According to the Soul City Institute’s advocacy manager, Savera Kalideen, in the months following the announcement of the proposed legislation to restrict or ban alcohol marketing and advertising, there has been an increase in debate on the issue with the advertising industry unsurprisingly claiming that there is no relationship between the negative impacts of alcohol consumption and the marketing and advertising of alcohol.

Through the discussions, yesterday, it was clear that for the benefit of societies and for the reduction of heavy expenditure from a public health perspective, a ban or a restriction was inevitable.

Kalideen explains that the heart of the issue is not just about how much South Africans drink on average, but rather to show that alcohol advertisements contribute to normalising harmful patterns of alcohol consumption and recruiting new alcohol consumers. It is also to interrogate the glamourisation and aspirational tone of most advertising as it continues to lure new alcohol drinking markets. This has a tangible impact on the health, finances and social relationships of consumers.

“The alcohol industry is trying to hide behind technical definitions of advertising as the promotion of products and brand competition when the very purpose of promoting a product is to persuade buyers to use or consume it,” says Kalideen.

Kalideen says, “Alcohol remains the legal most common primary drug of choice across the country and as such, is a gateway drug to other substances as well. It results in risks, including accidents, injuries, teenage pregnancies, as well as unprotected sexual behaviour which may lead to HIV transmission”.

According to the latest Medical Research Council study on health-related harm caused by alcohol, 40% is due to violence, 18% is due to mental health problems resulting from alcohol abuse and dependence disorders, and 12% is due to road deaths – of which 60% consisted of drunken pedestrians hit by cars. A 2010 report on the crime situation in South Africa by the South African Police Service also acknowledges that alcohol frequently plays a role in violent social contact crime such as murders, attempted murders, rape and assaults.

“If we want to understand and combat the extremely high levels of interpersonal violence we experience in South Africa, we have to reduce access to alcohol by banning alcohol marketing and advertising, among other critical interventions, “ Kalideen says. .

In March 2010, the Soul City Institute launched the Phuza Wize campaign which promotes the creation of safer social spaces by encouraging several key activities including eating food before drinking, drinking with familiar people and alternating alcoholic drinks with water or soft drinks.

The alcohol advertisements that we see around us, many in violation of the industry’s own code of regulations, make it clear that the liquor industry cannot be left to regulate itself. They continue to link success, masculinity and glamour to high levels of alcohol consumption and place adverts in the media platforms that are accessible to children. The solution is a ban on all forms of alcohol marketing and advertising as well as strict monitoring and enforcement with severe penalties for those who infringe the laws.

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Alcohol Should Be Banned (Argumentative Essay Sample)

Alcohol should be banned.

Alcohol is widely used and abused by many people all over the world; alcohol consumption is legal making the product easily available in liquor stores, restaurants, and all supermarkets. Traditionally, alcohol consumption is widely accepted during special occasions like family get together or for leisure. However, such traditions have been misused, causing addiction among some users.  People who abuse alcohol develop several problems affecting not only his family but also the society. The negative impact of alcohol consumption has been a constant debate as people wonder if banning of alcohol consumption would minimize some of these effects.

Alcohol contains ethanol one of the compounds used to make beverages; it is true that moderate consumption of ethanol minimizes stress, increases the feeling of happiness and even reduces the risk of acquiring coronary heart diseases.  Nevertheless, heavy consumption of ethanol mostly found in alcohol causes addiction and increases the risk of acquiring several heart diseases. Alcohol is a depressant that can easily cause addiction if taken in larger portions. Alcohol controls the body’s central nervous system and slowing down the body functions. Alcohol also alters the brain functions, causing hallucination, anxiety and other psychological problems among alcohol addicts.

Even though many people argue that alcohol consumption should be legal to the older population because of its positive effects on the economy, health care experts have raised concerns over the misuse of alcohol among teenagers during entertainment. Many deaths are caused by teenagers who drive under the influence of alcohol. Besides, alcohol consumption causes several health problems, including cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic illnesses like lung problem, diabetes are common even among moderate drinkers. Heavy drinking of alcohol causes psychological problems like insomnia, hallucination, confusion and anxiety.

Alcohol contributes to a larger percentage of crimes in America; more than 60 percent of crimes committed in the US, including sexual abuse, murder, and child abuse and domestic violence are all caused by heavy alcohol consumers.  There is no doubt that alcohol is the leading cause of public disorder in the modern society. Banning alcohol will not only reduce the incidences of alcohol, but also restore public order. According to several research studies, the damage caused by frequent alcohol consumption is considerable, like other drugs, alcohol causes negative effects in the brain in the long run causing addiction.

Some of the common side effects associated with alcohol consumption include poor health, lost career opportunities, broken families, and disorientated society. Many research studies have analyzed some of the long-term effects of alcohol consumption, in all the research studies reveals that alcohol consumption causes severe damage to the body in the end.  After reviewing all the study findings, there has been intense debate whether alcohol consumption should be completely banned or not. Alcohol is still a legal drug. Alcohol consumption is acceptable by law with minimal restrictions that prohibit younger people and adults from driving when under the influence of alcohol, despite the fact that alcohol consumption causes more harm to users and their loved ones in the end.

I believe that alcohol consumption should be banned and laws should protect innocent people from suffering by making alcohol consumption to be illegal. Alcohol has limited benefits, but the consequences of its misuse cause negative impact to the society. That is why I believe that alcohol needs to be banned.

Bans on Alcohol Advertising Don’t Make Much Sense

The Super Bowl has come and go, and watchers were treated to some of the best commercials of the year. Once again, among the ads’ sponsors were producers of alcoholic products who many times make some of the highest rated commercials of the game.

Columns appearing on the service and this webpage represent the views of the authors, not of The University of Texas at Austin.

But this year, something new happened – an increase in regulatory pressure on alcohol advertising. As a researcher who studies advertising, particularly alcohol advertising, I think this increase in regulatory pressure doesn’t make much sense.

The Los Angeles City Council recently passed a ban on alcohol advertising on municipal property, substantially reducing the number of outdoor advertising locations available to alcohol advertisers.

Philadelphia already has in place a similar ban, and in San Francisco alcohol advertising is not permitted on any public transportation.

Around the world, Turkey recently enacted restrictions prohibiting not only the advertising, but also the sale of alcoholic beverages in certain settings such as sponsored activities and festivals. Even the placement of alcohol logos was restricted to only certain establishments.

Russia banned alcohol advertising on television, radio, the Internet, public transportation, billboards and in all print media in an attempt to affect that country’s high level of consumption.

All of these restrictions and bans on alcohol advertising come at a time when total per capita consumption of alcohol in the U.S. has remained mostly constant during the past 40 years, and worldwide consumption has been stable since 1990.

So why the most recent concern regarding alcohol advertising?

Research studying the impact of alcohol advertising bans on the reduction of alcohol consumption has provided conflicting results.

For example, a comprehensive study in 17 countries for the years 1977-1995 showed that advertising bans did not decrease alcohol consumption or abuse.

However, in a similar study that examined data from 20 countries over 26 years, researchers concluded that alcohol advertising bans decreased alcohol consumption during the period they examined.

So it appears that ad bans are a potential solution for policymakers interested in reducing alcohol consumption, although the evidence shows inconsistent results. But this doesn’t take into account a more important issue.

With per capita consumption remaining mostly constant during the past 100 years, it seems clear that in the established, mature marketplace for alcohol, competition for a greater share of sales is intense and constant.

Advertising has become the most visible ingredient of the overall marketing strategy. Companies try to increase their revenue through stronger, more innovative marketing efforts.

For example, liquor brands that took advantage of the recent ability to advertise in the electronic media saw market share gains as a result.

Permitting the market to operate freely encourages competition not only among brands but among categories of alcoholic beverages as well.

Published studies have provided evidence of consumption changes not only between brands but also across categories of alcoholic beverages during the past 40-plus years.

All of this has taken place without much change in per capita consumption for more than a century.

Proposals to restrict or curtail truthful, commercial messages about a legal product work against rational public policy.

By limiting restrictions and allowing the market to function freely, companies can compete using advertising and media strategies while not affecting the total amount of alcohol consumed. Consumers are given the choice of what products to buy and the ability to decide based on competitive product offerings.

Although criticisms of alcohol advertising and promotional methods abound, implementation of only remedies that would restrict or overly regulate such communication activities usually do not have the desired effect of reducing consumption.

Instead, such restrictions would only serve to limit a company’s ability to employ marketing communication strategies as a means to gain market share.

A more logical alternative is to get as much information as possible out to the public about the problems of alcohol abuse and misuse.

The way to get that information out to the society is to get rid of restrictions or bans on communication about alcohol and encourage all viewpoints to communicate so our society makes an autonomous, rational choice on alcohol.

Bans on alcohol advertising simply don’t make a lot of sense.

Gary Wilcox is the John A. Beck Centennial Professor in Communication in the Stan Richards School of Advertising and Public Relations at The University of Texas at Austin.

A version of this op-ed appeared in the Philadelphia Inquirer , Contra Costa Times and the Corpus Christi Caller Times .

To view more op-eds from Texas Perspectives, click here .

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New TP op-ed: Keep the alcohol advertising flowing… http://t.co/dukN4Kq55W — Texas Perspectives (@TexPerspectives) February 2, 2015

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We tested claims that limiting alcohol advertising in South Africa would violate rights

PhD candidate, University of Bath

Head of the Division of Public Health Medicine in the School of Public Health and Family Medicine, University of Cape Town

Disclosure statement

Adam Bertscher receives scholarship funding from Bloomberg Philanthropies and University of Bath. He is affiliated with non profit organisations the Framework Convention on Global Health (FCGH) Alliance and the People's Health Movement. He has consulted for the Southern African Policy Alliance.

Leslie London has received funding from the European Union Mission to South Africa, the International Development Research Centre, the South African Medical Research Council (MRC) and the South African National Research Foundation (NRF) both in the past and presently. In the past, he's received funding from the UK Medical Research Council and the US Centres for Diseases Control, the Western Cape Liquor Board and the DG Murray Trust. He is a member of the People health Movement, a participant in the C19 Peoples Coalition and has consulted to the Southern African Alcohol Policy Alliance. He has no involvement with any political party.

University of Bath provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK.

University of Cape Town provides funding as a partner of The Conversation AFRICA.

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The lockdown restrictions introduced in South Africa to curb the initial spread of COVID-19 in March 2020 were the tightest in the world. They included a ban on alcohol sales. This, the government said, was to reduce the pressure on hospitals caused by drinking-related trauma, and to discourage social gatherings.

This restriction exposed the huge public health and social impact of alcohol in South Africa. Dramatic decreases in violence, injuries and trauma-related hospital admissions were reported following the ban on alcohol sales.

The country has some of the heaviest drinkers in the world. Excessive drinking is a major contributor to the health burden . Children are especially vulnerable.

In South Africa 12% of adolescents consumed their first alcoholic beverage before the age of 13 years. In 2016, of the young people between 15 and 19 years old who consumed alcohol, 65% reported binge drinking.

Alcohol abuse is also linked to many societal problems. These include domestic violence , foetal alcohol syndrome , child abuse , injuries , and risky sexual behaviours .

In 2012, the South African government drafted the Control of Marketing of Alcoholic Beverages Bill. The Bill sought to restrict advertising, marketing, sponsorship, or promotion of alcoholic beverages except at the point of sale. It was drafted specifically to protect children from alcohol advertising . This intervention is consistent with World Health Organisation recommendations to control alcohol-related harm.

The Bill underwent three regulatory and socio-economic impact assessments. It was meant to be published for public comment in 2013 but was never made public. Our previous research found that the alcohol and allied industries lobbied heavily against the draft Bill.

One argument made by opponents to the draft Bill was that it would unjustifiably violate human rights. These include freedom of expression, and consumers’ rights to information.

In a recent paper we analysed these claims using the Siracusa Principles , which guide the circumstances under which it is justifiable to restrict some rights.

Human rights are a well-recognised framework based on ethics and embedded in international law. They can be used to find a balance between competing societal goals.

What does international human rights law say?

The Siracusa Principles emerged from a meeting of experts in international law in 1984. They were concerned that limitations on rights in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights might be abused for national security or in a public emergency. They then provided principles for when limitations were permitted, according to international law.

The Siracusa Principles have five criteria that should be met to permit a restriction on human rights. The restriction must be:

• provided for and carried out in accordance with the law;
• in the interest of a legitimate objective of general interest;
• strictly necessary in a democratic society to achieve the objective;
• the least intrusive means available to reach the objective; and
• not arbitrary or unreasonable.

We used this framework in our research to answer the question: is restricting alcohol advertising, in the interest of public health, a justifiable limitation on the right to freedom of expression?

We concluded that restricting alcohol advertising to protect children’s rights and the right to health is justifiable, for several reasons.

Firstly, is it doubtful that corporations can claim human rights. Human rights are intended for natural persons and not legal entities like corporations. But even if rights apply to legal entities, it’s still possible that a limit on freedom of expression could be justified.

Secondly, public health reasons may be acceptable grounds for restricting freedom of expression according to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. This is because there is strong evidence of the negative impact of alcohol consumption on children. And alcohol advertising is linked to earlier initiation of drinking . This suggests that South Africa’s draft Bill would be effective in reducing drinking in young people .

Thirdly, many international human rights laws support this restriction. For example, article 24 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child supports children’s right to survival and development, and their right to health.

Article 17(e) of the Convention obliges governments to protect children from harmful information. Alcohol advertising would be information that is harmful for children.

Moreover, article 12 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights obliges governments to protect people’s rights from violations by non-state actors – such as the alcohol industry. Government failure to regulate the activities of corporations that market harmful substances may amount to a violation of the right to health .

Lastly, there are no less intrusive and restrictive methods available other than restricting alcohol advertising. Given the scale of the problem, other kinds of interventions targeting high risk drinkers are either ineffective or pose insurmountable logistical challenges, such as the notion of identifying and targeting problem drinkers.

And self-regulation does not work . These industry-preferred interventions put the responsibility on individuals without recognising the responsibility of the alcohol industry in influencing drinking behaviours.

Reducing harm

Introducing regulation to reduce alcohol-related harm is fully consistent with human rights protection, particularly for children. Such regulation could include restricting alcohol advertising, marketing, sponsorship, or promotion.

The international treaty on transnational corporations, business enterprises and human rights is a new draft international law that could substantially strengthen public health goals. This treaty would place obligations on non-state actors, similar to those on governments, and help to make commercial actors accountable for their business practices.

• Public health
• Binge drinking
• South Africa

Manager, Regional Training Hub

Head of Evidence to Action

Supply Chain - Assistant/Associate Professor (Tenure-Track)

OzGrav Postdoctoral Research Fellow

Casual Facilitator: GERRIC Student Programs - Arts, Design and Architecture

Home — Essay Samples — Nursing & Health — Alcoholism — Discussion on the Alcoholism and Why Alcohol Should Be Illegal

Discussion on The Alcoholism and Why Alcohol Should Be Illegal

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Published: Mar 18, 2021

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