This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.
News
Do online alcohol ad regulations need updating?
The rise of social media has been a great way for spirits brands to reach consumers. But have the rules that are in place to protect vulnerable web users kept pace with the constant changes in the online sphere? The Spirits Business investigates.
*This feature was originally published in the December 2018 issue of The Spirits Business
Ah, social media – the omnipotent online force that can shoot you to fame and glory one moment, and cause you to crash and burn the next.
In the business world, the development of social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat has reshaped how brands approach advertising. For products that carry age restrictions, such as spirits, this has been a complex manoeuvre. Marketing is no longer confined to traditional formats; ‘influencers’ and celebrities have the power to affect thousands – if not millions – of fans with a single post, and brands will pay big bucks to be tied to their names. This has created a labyrinth of issues for producers looking to capitalise on this new way of advertising. But has the alcohol industry done enough to keep rules and regulations up to date with today’s digital era?
To create a safer alcohol industry, the CEOs of 11 leading alcohol companies, including Diageo, Pernod Ricard, Bacardi, Beam Suntory and Brown-Forman, banded together to create the not-for-profit International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD) in 2012. Chaired by Diageo CEO Ivan Menezes, in September the IARD committed to a partnership with Facebook, Snapchat, Twitter and YouTube to “deliver new standards of responsibility in the advertising of beer, wine and spirits across social media”.
The collaboration includes: using the “most up-to-date” safeguards for marketing alcoholic beverages to ensure ads are only directed at adults who can legally buy these products; exploring potential changes to “further diminish chances” of alcohol advertising reaching under-age people; and giving users “greater control” over whether or not they see alcohol advertising.
The Portman Group welcomed the initiative and at the time, John Timothy, its chief executive, said: “Empowering people to choose what advertising and marketing they can see on social media sites will help those who are alcohol-dependent and those who want to moderate their drinking. These commitments show that producers take responsible marketing seriously and that partnership working is the best way to bring about change and drive up standards.”
In the UK, alcohol marketing is co-regulated by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), Ofcom and the Portman Group. In May, the Portman Group launched a fifth “major” review of its Code of Practice, and opened a 10-week public consultation to invite input on key issues to do with alcohol marketing.
“The UK has a strong and seamless system of alcohol regulation through the ASA, Ofcom and the Portman Group,” insists Timothy. “The rise of social media use has not led to an increase in harmful drinking rates among young people. The opposite has occurred, with fewer drinking, and those that do drink doing so increasingly responsibly.”Two
The ASA has been regulating social media advertising since 2011, and says it continually reviews any new evidence on alcohol advertising to “make sure all our rules are in the right place”. “The evidence we have seen so far does not indicate a need to change the strict rules we already have in place,” says Shabnum Mustapha, media and public affairs manager at the ASA.
To help brands better navigate the online advertising space, the ASA offers specific guidance for advertisers to ensure that any adverts for age-restricted products such as alcohol are not aimed at under-18s by using interest-based targeting rather than relying on age. “The content rules work in concert with the placement rules, so that while alcohol ads mustn’t be targeted at under18s, any ads they do see shouldn’t be of particular appeal to them,” says Mustapha.
Social media: the online world has moved on since advertising rules were drawn up
RULE BREAKERS
Nonetheless, in recent years many alcohol brands have fallen foul of the rules for online advertising, particularly on social media accounts. In January, the ASA banned a Snapchat advert for Diageo’s Captain Morgan rum brand, upholding a single complaint that it appealed to under-18s. Diageo had partnered with the social media site to create a Snapchat ‘lens’ that featured a cartoon icon of a pirate, allowing the user’s face to look like Captain Morgan in photos and videos posted on the channel.
The ASA said the ad’s setup was “likely to appeal particularly to those under 18”, prompting the brand to withdraw its Snapchat advertising globally. Diageo defended its ad, stating it had used data from Snapchat to ensure the content was not targeted towards under-18s and had also applied an age filter.
The Alcohol Health Alliance (AHA) has criticised the “slow speed” at which the case was handled – the advert appeared in June 2017, but the complaint was not resolved until six months later. The AHA argues incidents like this are “made worse by social media’s comparably instantaneous reach”.
As such, the AHA has called for the UK government to take action and create a “truly independent alcohol advertising regulator” with “much higher levels of scrutiny and public accountability”.
“The government should put in place statutory regulation that restricts the placement, content and audience of alcohol advertising online,” says professor Sir Ian Gilmore, chair of the AHA UK. “The current regulatory system isn’t doing enough to protect young people. As the government has made clear in its commitment to protecting the wellbeing of young people in its response to the Internet Safety Strategy Green Paper, we would like to see action on these harmful practices. This includes tightening the regulation of all forms of alcohol marketing on social media with a quick and effective solution that is fit for the digital age.”
But Global Brands has lamented the “outdated and irrelevant” advertising codes that exist. “Both the CAP [the UK Code of Non-Broadcast Advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing] and BCAP [UK Code of Broadcast Advertising] were published in 2010, and during the past eight years, we’ve not seen any substantive rule changes to the alcohol parts of either code,” says Jen Draper, marketing director at the independent drinks company. “This is in complete contrast to the exponential growth in social media and a seismic shift in how brands market to consumers. The onus to better improve responsibility sits with the regulators, who need to realise consumerism and alcohol marketing has changed significantly since they drafted the rules.”
It seems apparent the spirits sphere is yet to agree on the most effective way to monitor online advertising – and it is certainly not the only industry that is struggling to keep pace with the ever-evolving World Wide Web. However, it is also fair to say that producers are not resting on their laurels, and the regulation of online alcohol advertising and social media marketing is of paramount importance to all.
As a spokesperson for Diageo concludes: “Although we have achieved significant progress in strengthening and expanding marketing codes of practice, digital media presents evolving opportunities to use improved consumer insights, better data and technology for responsible marketing.
“We are committed to developing, in collaboration with others, new robust responsible marketing standards for digital channels that represent best practice in this rapidly changing field.”