Missing the point on booze marketing, again


10:55 am - April 23rd 2010

by John B    


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So there’s yet another alcohol-bashing study out. This one says [*] that sports stars’ drunk behaviour has no impact on young adults’ drinking behaviour (that’s ‘over 18s’, or ‘legally responsible adults’), but that alcohol marketing does.

This isn’t surprising. Of course alcohol marketing makes people drink more of the brand being marketed, otherwise people wouldn’t do it. But we need people to research things that seem obvious from time to time, because sometimes we find out that what we think we know is wrong. So, decent study, worth funding, all good.

But:

There’s always been a link made between alcohol and sport… the detrimental effects of that, in the same way as there was previously between cigarettes and sport,” Professor Kolt said.

Err, no. The difference is that smoking, full stop, is harmful. Alcohol consumption below 30 units (300ml of alcohol; 15 pints of bitter) a week has not been demonstrated to do harm, even compared to not drinking at all, and you need to get up to 50+ units before the risks of morbidity or mortality are substantially higher than for non-drinkers.

Unless the study shows that the impact of alcohol marketing is to encourage people aged 18-22 to drink more than 30 units a week, then it’s only of interest to alcohol marketers, and not to policymakers. And if they had found that, they’d most certainly have put it in the press release…

The problem with this kind of alcohol research (i.e. social science on consumption behaviour, rather than epidemiological science on health outcomes) is that nearly all the work commissioned and published by public bodies is carried out by miserable puritans who hate the concept of anyone ever having any kind of fun. This is because researchers who don’t hate the concept of anyone ever having any kind of fun work for drinks companies instead: they pay better, you get a free bar after work, and you don’t have to hang out with people from the first group.

But drinks companies tend to keep their studies private, because they don’t want their rivals to see them…

Therefore, the general pattern in the public arena is that some people will create a report which actually shows mildly interesting things about how people like to consume alcohol – but because of the prejudices of the people who’re writing it, the abstract and the PR make groundless accusations about negative impacts on disorder and health. And then the media reports the groundless accusations as “a study has concluded that”, and the public debate is ratcheted slightly further towards miserable puritanism.

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[*] I have no idea what the study says. The above is what the press release says; the press release features quotes from and has been approved by the study’s main authors, and is what will shape the public debate.

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About the author
John Band is a journalist, editor and market analyst, depending on who's asking and how much they're paying. He's also been a content director at a publishing company and a strategy consultant. He is a regular contributor to Liberal Conspiracy and also blogs at Banditry.
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Reader comments


1. Shatterface

Agree whole-heartedly. The anti-pleasure lobby gets away with it’s bullshit because any politician who questions them will be greated with howls of ‘Won’t somebody think of the children?!?’ Decades of social liberalisation is being threatened by puritals masking their resentment behind health concerns and horror stories about ‘Broken Britain’.

2. Matt Munro

“Err, no. The difference is that smoking, full stop, is harmful. Alcohol consumption below 30 units (300ml of alcohol; 15 pints of bitter) a week has not been demonstrated to do harm, even compared to not drinking at all”

I don’t think that’s true if you include drink related accidents, but I’m with you on the rest. Alchol is not the problem, even heavy drinkers pay for their negative externalities via alcohol taxes, and disorder is an enforcement issue, not an alchol one.
You can’t be surprised that having villified one off message group (smokers) the left wing health police are now turning on drinkers and “unhealthy eaters” surely ?

3. Nick Cohen is a Tory

I don’t agree with the anti drinking lobby. I do like the idea of us, as a nation changing from a lad / ladette culture to a more grown up continental view of drinking. That is why I support 24 hour drinking, drink when you want it
Unfortunately we don’t enjoy drink in thsi country, it is viewed a rite of passage and some form of ordeal. Enjoy it, don’t just throw it down your neck.


Reactions: Twitter, blogs
  1. Liberal Conspiracy

    Missing the point on booze marketing, again http://bit.ly/b6m3cY

  2. John West

    RT: @libcon Missing the point on booze marketing, again http://bit.ly/b6m3cY << you'll enjoy this, @PeteBrownBeer

  3. Pete Brown

    RT @jesus_john: RT: @libcon Missing the point on booze marketing, again http://bit.ly/b6m3cY << you'll enjoy this, @PeteBrownBeer

  4. ROY MCNEILL

    More liberal anti drinkers missing the point again – http://bit.ly/b6m3cY – When will they learn that most of us just enjoy a drink or 2.

  5. matth35

    Interseting take on a completely meaningless study press release RT @libcon Missing the point on booze marketing, again http://bit.ly/daPRNw

  6. Eric Sorensen

    RT @PeteBrownBeer: Missing the point on booze marketing & "scientific" studies, again http://bit.ly/b6m3cY

  7. MelissaCole

    RT @sorebrewer: RT @PeteBrownBeer: Missing the point on booze marketing & "scientific" studies, again http://bit.ly/b6m3cY

  8. uberVU - social comments

    Social comments and analytics for this post…

    This post was mentioned on Twitter by libcon: Missing the point on booze marketing, again http://bit.ly/b6m3cY…





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