Beware! Wowsers!
The Government, urged on by groups like GALA (Group Against Liquor Advertising) and the Drug Foundation, wants to review alcohol advertising with a view to greater restrictions. The push for this is preventing youth binge drinking.
While you can sympathise with a ban on tobacco advertising - as there is no safe level of tobacco usage whereas there are possibly some benefits to small alcohol consumption - to remove sponsorship and advertising for a product as pervasive as alcohol will be laughable. Back in the 1980s, Dominion Breweries came up with a novel idea to beat the existing ban - simply advertise the 'company' without mentioning the product.
As a teenager in the 1980s, my introduction to alcohol was through my peers - inevitably binge drinking - and through my family - always responsibly. This is well before alcohol advertising was allowed. So you can't blame advertising for binge drinking. And nowadays all advertising for alcohol shows responsible behavior - it's only the Government road safety and harm reduction ads that show irresponsible activity with alcohol.
Another point is banning television advertising and sports sponsorships will only push alcohol promotions to the point of sale. The promotions will inevitably encourage you to buy large quantities of alcohol in return for some prizes that will appeal most to young people - the very thing that Government want to stop.
The more sensible option is to push back to families to teach teenagers how to be responsible about alcohol. For instance, the SADD Contract - where parents agree to collect their child, no questions asked, from anywhere if they do not have safe transport home - is a positive step. After the young person is home safe and sobered up, the parents can then discuss what happened and how to avoid the same mistakes.
But in the meantime, it seems that the Wowsers are set to cut out advertising for alcohol.
While you can sympathise with a ban on tobacco advertising - as there is no safe level of tobacco usage whereas there are possibly some benefits to small alcohol consumption - to remove sponsorship and advertising for a product as pervasive as alcohol will be laughable. Back in the 1980s, Dominion Breweries came up with a novel idea to beat the existing ban - simply advertise the 'company' without mentioning the product.
As a teenager in the 1980s, my introduction to alcohol was through my peers - inevitably binge drinking - and through my family - always responsibly. This is well before alcohol advertising was allowed. So you can't blame advertising for binge drinking. And nowadays all advertising for alcohol shows responsible behavior - it's only the Government road safety and harm reduction ads that show irresponsible activity with alcohol.
Another point is banning television advertising and sports sponsorships will only push alcohol promotions to the point of sale. The promotions will inevitably encourage you to buy large quantities of alcohol in return for some prizes that will appeal most to young people - the very thing that Government want to stop.
The more sensible option is to push back to families to teach teenagers how to be responsible about alcohol. For instance, the SADD Contract - where parents agree to collect their child, no questions asked, from anywhere if they do not have safe transport home - is a positive step. After the young person is home safe and sobered up, the parents can then discuss what happened and how to avoid the same mistakes.
But in the meantime, it seems that the Wowsers are set to cut out advertising for alcohol.
posted by Michael at
7:01 PM
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