Law Commission to booze marketers: “Woooaaaah, Nelly”
A sobering report released today by the Law Commission on the sale and promotion of liquor recommends significant changes to how it is marketed in New Zealand. So, marketers in the liquor industry and agencies with liquor and supermarket accounts need to prepare themselves.
The main recommendations are:
- No total ban on alcohol advertising and sponsorship (that’s the good news for those in the industry)
- A three-stage restriction on alcohol sponsorship and advertising over five years (that’s the start of the bad news)
- Stage one would include legislative changes to make it an offence to promote or advertise alcohol in a manner likely to have special appeal to persons under the age of 20 (note the appeal need not be limited to those under 20)
- Stage two would include a 10pm watershed for television and radio advertising, no advertising on public transport, in cinemas (except at R18 or above movies) or at sport or cultural events (including sports club bars)
- Stage three (yes, there is more) would include restricting any remaining advertising to messages and images referring only to qualities of the product, such as origin, composition, means of production and patterns of consumption, no sponsorship of sporting or cultural events and no advertising in publications read mainly by those under 20 years
- A final goal of legislative restrictions on advertising and sponsorship that allow only objective product information.
Time will tell which recommendations Government will adopt. But there can be little doubt change is coming.
Whatever happens from here, the direction of change is clearly towards greater control over the promotion of liquor. The Law Commission report is the latest signal of that shift. Indeed, some things have already changed: we now have the ASA Code for the Naming, Packaging and Promotion of Liquor and the Complaints Board for that Code meets for the first time next month.
The question is how much direct Government control there should be. The Law Commission says “lots”. Liquor producers and retailers, on the other hand, are trying to show that they have self-control and therefore direct government control is not needed. Complying with the new (and existing) ASA Codes will support that self-control argument.
Suffice to say, now is not the best time for a sexy and/or provocative alcohol campaign. Bear in mind what the Commission had to say about a particular campaign in its Issues Paper in 2009:
Consider that in New Zealand the Code for Advertising Liquor requires that advertisements not be “sexually provocative or suggestive or suggest any link between liquor and sexual attraction or performance”. While recognising the humorous context, the central feature of a recent advertising campaign for a well-known beer brand was the physical attractiveness of the female ‘employees’ featured in the set of advertisements. In this way, self-regulatory systems can permit promotions that connect alcohol products with aspirational values or underlying messages in a way that a more prescriptive regime … would not.
So there’s lots of change to come in this massive advertising category.
David MacGregor
April 27, 2010
It's a fine line between the Nanny Sate and the Ninny State
Change in liquor promotion has been on the cards for a long time.
Most experienced advertising practitioners will find nothing surprising in the findings you have detailed.
If any industry is skilled at finding loopholes, however, it is the liquor industry. Teamed with the advertising industry legislators haven't got what might reasonably be called a shit-show of staunching the tide.
The obvious area for future kerfuffle is the Internet. The info posted here seems to focus primarily on Television advertising and buses etc.
It would be simple to host campaigns on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter and there wouln't be a thing that could be done, short of blocking access to web content. Can't see that happening.
My feeling is that Geoff – let's kill whales – Palmer is losing his marbles and seeking to establish his legacy in his dotage (sort of like Frank Mitterand's egotistical building frenzy at La Defense in Paris).
The real issue about advertising liquor is that
restrictions will be precursor to restricting food promotion, then medicines, then motor cars, then personal care products…well,…you get the point.
This kind of Soviet restriction is stupid and pointless. Self regulation has, by and large worked just fine and, no matter what politicians and washed up former politicians like Palmer think, people aren't idiots.
Dan Winfield
April 27, 2010
It would be interesting to hear whether marketing bods in alcohol companies/retailers agree with your comments David.
I suspect that the Commission's forceful call for government regulation will have come as a surprise to them. In its interim report the Commission indicated there was a core role for the ASA in any new regime. That's not the case now.
I am also less optimistic than you that loopholes will exist. Its hard to see where loopholes would be in a regime that only lets you say what your product is, where it comes from and what it costs. Theres also the proposed criminal sanctions a company (and probably its directors) would be exposed to for testing the boundaries.
The restrictions proposed cover all media . Under the proposed regime any internet campaign aimed at New Zealand consumers would need to compy with the law or those behind it would risk criminal prosecution.
It's really game on from here. If you work with a alcohol producer or retailer and want to understand what they are facing it's worth reading at least chapter 19 of the Commission's report at http://www.lawcom.govt.nz/publications.aspx
Cheers
Lance Wiggs
April 28, 2010
I helped my father Glen Wiggs with a very entertaining chart on this matter.
Turns out that the annual spend on liquor advertising looks to be inversely related to the annual consumption of alcohol.
That is – the more money is spent on liquor ads, the less alcohol was consumed in a given year.
Now – isn't that strange?
Jayson Bryant
April 28, 2010
There really needs to be some common sense displayed with regard to this topic.
Rather than put a bandaid on the problem of New Zealand's drinking culture we need to look for the root of the problem.
In Europe, not the UK, there is a greater respect for alcohol and the culture surrounding it. If we were to look deeper we would see that we need is a cultural shift. This shift would have to include education, a greater emphasis place on food and more encouragement to grow, make and eat healthy food and sit around the dinner table to eat and discuss topic and generally have good communication within the household.
The whole ethos of modern existence is instant gratification, consumerism, greed, and convenience, and then we wonder why we have an alcohol problem!
Give people longer lunch breaks where canteens are open, and people can debrief and relax and chat over a glass of wine or beer. Have wine or beer on the table with children present and drink responsibly in front of them and make it part of everyday life and see if that changes the way we drink.
After all what we are doing now isn't working!