Ad industry slams alcohol ad plans

IPA says Chief Medical Officer’s proposals are ‘over the top’. ISBA calls for sensible drinking campaign

The advertising industry has attacked proposals to put tobacco-style health warnings on alcohol advertisements as “using a sledgehammer to crack a nut”.

The Institute of Practitioners in Advertising (IPA) says the proposals, put forward this week by the Government’s Chief Medical Officer Liam Donaldson, are “way over the top” and will do nothing to tackle the problem of alcohol abuse among the young.

IPA media policy adviser Geoffrey Russell says there are already “stringent guidelines” in place to stop alcohol ads from promoting the product to under-18s or from encouraging “binge drinking”.

His view is backed by Ian Twinn, head of public affairs at the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers (ISBA), who argues that the Government would be better off running its own, positive, campaign to promote sensible drinking.

Twinn also pours scorn on calls from charity Alcohol Concern for a one per cent levy on the drinks industry’s £227m-a-year advertising budget, with the proceeds to be used for the prevention and treatment of alcohol misuse. “That would just send even more people across the Channel to buy cheaper booze. The Government could use the £6.5bn it takes in excise duty every year to get its message across,” he says.

In his annual report, published this week, Donaldson attributes the sharp rise in deaths from liver cirrhosis to an increase in binge drinking among young people. The disease claimed the lives of 470 men and 288 women aged under 44 last year – representing a ten-fold increase on the death rate in this age group 30 years ago.