TV ad controls will not change drinking behaviour

by Colin Grimshaw, Media Week 27-Nov-07

When the British Medical Journal reports that binge-drinking women are turning up at hospital A&E departments with ruptured bladders, being so pissed they don't realise the need to spend a penny, it is clear that change is needed to the nation's drinking behaviour.

Yet, the remedies being mooted, principally price increases (through taxation) and further curbs on advertising, perhaps a pre-9pm ban on TV, smack of tokenism and fail to address the social and behavioural issues.

Tax increases will only swell the convoy of white vans heading for French channel ports on cheap booze buying expeditions, with consequent damage to UK brewers and the Exchequer's purse, while penalising more responsible drinkers.

A pre-9pm ban on TV ads flies in the face of the media consumption patterns of young people who spend less time watching TV and more time on social networking and other websites, where advertising is unregulated. It would threaten the economics of 24-hour sports and music channels as alcohol marketing shifted ever more online and below the line.

In any case, the need for more ad controls is not supported by recent research from Ofcom and the Advertising Standards Authority into the effects of the tightening of the Advertising Codes on alcohol two years ago.

These have already seen advertisers cut a quarter of their spend on TV, while the targeting of ads at under-24s and this group's recall of booze ads have also fallen dramatically.

Yes, the wave of TV ads promoting the cider-over-ice fad may have fuelled the vogue for cider drinking by young people, but that has come with a fall in the popularity of alcopops. There are still some transgressors, ads for WKD and Foster's play to the binge-drinking set and drinks firms and their advertising agencies need to do more to put their own house in order.

Meanwhile, there are moves by broadcasters to show greater responsibility themselves. Viacom Brand Solutions is courting "pro-social" advertising by healthy foods, "green" cars and other energy efficient products, offering to match their spend with free airtime.

Should Nick Bampton extend this generosity to alcohol, perhaps the COI could be induced into investing in campaigns that may actually help change binge-drinking behaviour, as opposed to threatened ad controls that will achieve little.

- Colin Grimshaw is the deputy editor of Media Week.