Fact No. 1: Alcohol companies spend billions on advertising because they get people to consume more of their drug. That is the only reason they spend enormous money advertising. If they thought they could get the same sales without advertising, they would not bother advertising.
Inversely, a ban on advertising would lead to a massive decline in alcohol sales - at least as much as the alcohol industry spends promoting itself every year. Because of that, I support a complete ban on alcohol advertising, similar to that which exists in other European countries such as France and Norway.
Having spent another night with a relative in A&E where drunk after drunk came in pushing the rest of us to the back of the queue, it seems not a day can go by without being reminded of the cost of alcohol abuse, and the unwillingness of the Irish state to face down the alcohol industry. The constant romanticising of this product in a state where it creates so much harm only adds to my despair at the irony.
Who financially benefits from alcohol advertising?
Alcohol companies, advertising agencies, media organisations, publicans and other alcohol sales people, professional "sports" organisations.
Who doesn't financially benefit?
Everybody else. Despite the taxes paid on alcohol, here's some of the financial cost of alcohol abuse, 'Ironically, cheap booze is costing us a lot as individual consumers. Bringing it down to the beloved bottom line,
it’s estimated that it costs us €3.7billion a year mopping up alcohol-related harm; including €1.2 billion in crime and €1.2billion in health. That works out at every income tax payer picking up a €3,318 annual tab in avoidable alcohol-related costs....'
Alcohol Action Ireland)
Alcohol problem costs €2.5 billion per year (2004) [Irishhealth.com]
€3.7bn – The hidden price of alcohol (2011) [Irish Examiner]
'Alcohol abuse was responsible for 2,000 hospital beds being occupied every night' (2012) [Irish Times]
None of those links seem to be mentioning the days lost in productivity because of people not coming in after abusing alcohol the night before.
It is long passed the time that the Irish state's politicians stopped kowtoing to the powerful alcohol industry and introduced bans on television and billboard advertisements, just as progressive European countries like France and Norway have done. As long ago as 1991 France passed its legislation banning alcohol advertising,
Loi Evin.
Interesting articles on the
French alcohol ban here and
here. It is free from the madness in Ireland where the alcohol industry regulates itself. In France, the state regulates alcohol advertising without consultation with the industry. And that's in a country with a massive economic interest in wine production and selling. If France can do it, Ireland can.
In Ireland, the following medical organisations are calling for an advertising ban:
1) The Irish Medical Organisation:
here and
here and
IMO supports calls for total ban on alcohol advertising
2)
Irish College of Psychiatrists (2008)
3) As long ago as 2001 Fine Gael proposed a
ban on all alcohol advertising on TV and alcohol sponsorship of sport.
In Britain, the British Medical Organisation supports a complete ban:
Ban all alcohol advertising and sponsorship, says BMA (2009) and in February 2013 it has repeated its call for
'a complete ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorship'.
Personally, on this issue I'd be more influenced by the lobbying of medical professionals who encounter alcohol abuse than I would be by the lobbying of the alcohol industry, or the silence of a media which would lose millions in advertising revenue if such a ban came into place.
