Voluntary code on alcohol advertising continues to fail our children and young people

The 4th annual report from the Alcohol Marketing Communications Monitoring Body entitled “Limiting the Exposure of Young People to Alcohol Advertising” * reported only a few breaches within the year despite a significant number of complaints received and a range of other issues identified. With one of the highest levels of underage drinking in Europe, urgent action is required to address high levels of alcohol advertising and marketing children and young people are subjected to in Ireland.

Our issues with the report include:

· In broadcasting, advertising is allowed in instances where less than 25% of audience is below 18 years of age. In reality this means that most advertising slots can be utilised for marketing alcohol.

· Branded alcohol advertising is prohibited in family slots such as breakfast time, but the report found “occurrences of alcohol related advertising, such as alcohol sponsorship, advertising for representative bodies of vintners, and retail advertising of alcohol”.

· A cinema advertiser and a TV station breached the code and there were no consequences for this action.

· Not all outdoor media companies provided information on the extent of alcohol advertising as there is no obligation for them to do so.

· Outdoor companies breached the code and faced no consequences with explanations and excuses for error accepted.

· Alcohol advertising is not allowed within 100m of school entrance. One operator claimed school entrance within 100m of outdoor advertising was only used by staff and not children, when in fact it was used by children.

· Breaches of code at 5 DART stations, monitoring body claim this happened before revised code came into place. However revised code came into force in October 2008 and report refers to 2009, so it is unclear why these were not judged to be breaches.

“The current voluntary code is a meaningless box ticking exercise designed to give cover to the drinks industry and Government that something is being done to protect children and young people. In fact it makes no difference. We need a much stronger code which has a legal basis, overseen and monitored by a body independent of the drinks and advertising industry with legal powers and right to issue sanctions to ensure children and young people are protected, The Irish public support this too, as seen in the 2007 Eurobarometer report+ which found that 74% supported a crackdown on alcohol advertising,” said James Doorley, Assistant Director at the National Youth Council of Ireland.

Mr. Doorley continued:“We welcome the fact that the National Steering Group for the Substance Misuse Strategy of which NYCI is a member is addressing alcohol marketing and marketing. We believe that legislation, restrictions on the amount and content of all channels of alcohol advertising and a forceful enforcement regime is the only way to protect children and young people”

ENDS

For further information, please contact Clodagh O’Brien, Communications Officer at NYCI on 087 781 4903 or 01 425 5955 or email communications@nyci.ie

Notes to Editors:

* http://www.dohc.ie/publications/pdf/amcmb_4th_report.pdf?direct=1

+ http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_272b_en.pdf

National Youth Council of Ireland

The National Youth Council of Ireland is a membership-led umbrella organisation that represents and supports the interests of 55 voluntary youth organisations and uses its collective experience to act on issues that impact on young people.