IPA fights curbs on alcohol ads

The advertising industry is calling on the Government to do more to promote sensible drinking, rather than introducing curbs on alcohol ads, following the publication of a report into the burden alcohol misuse places on the NHS.

The report, issued by the Royal College of Physicians (RCP), suggests that alcohol abuse costs the NHS up to £3bn a year. It has intensified calls for tighter restrictions on advertising and promoting alcohol, especially to young people.

Professor Ian Gilmore, chairman of the RCP working party which carried out the research, says the national alcohol strategy being drawn up by the Government should look at whether the current regulations are working.

“The current standards say that advertising should not portray alcohol as making people more powerful or attractive, but if you look at most drink ads that is exactly what they do,” he says.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) believes the Government should concentrate on promoting sensible-drinking by running campaigns along the same lines as its drink-driving initiative.

“This country’s rules on alcohol advertising are already fantastically strict, and evidence from countries such as France shows that alcohol consumption among young people goes up, not down, when advertising is banned, ” says IPA president Rupert Howell.

Ian Twinn, director of public affairs at the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), agrees: “There is a difference between alcohol consumption and alcohol abuse which needs to be made clear. We already know that advertising can be effective in changing people’s behaviour patterns.” He adds that the purpose of alcohol advertising is to create brand awareness, not to promote alcohol consumption.