MEDIA & MARKETING:The industry is alarmed that tougher limits on alcohol advertising could be on the way

ADVERTISING OF alcohol products is regulated by voluntary codes of practice but tougher restrictions could be on the way and the industry is alarmed.

In January, the Government decided to develop a national substance misuse strategy. The drugs policy element of this strategy has been agreed and a steering group is currently mulling policies on alcohol.

Rosemary Garth, director of the Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland, is a member of the steering group and she does not like what she has been hearing around the table.

“It is crucial that any policy recommendations made by the steering group are on the basis of clear evidence rather than perception. The group appears to be more concerned with reducing the average person’s level of consumption rather than specific actions targeted at those misusing alcohol,” she says.

“As a key national industry that employs over 80,000 people and generates over €2 billion in sales and export revenues for the State, we want to ensure that we can continue to market and advertise our product appropriately.”

The federation is fighting to persuade the Government that the balance between protecting citizens’ health and fostering national champions should be weighed carefully.

At a recent briefing on the issue, veteran advertising executive John Fanning stressed that, like it or not, Irish drink brands such as Guinness, Jameson and Baileys are the State’s most important calling card on the global economic stage.

“The drinks industry is an industry that we are better at than other countries,” he said.

“We are in competition with every other country for investment, tourism and exports. People are not going to invest in a place they have never heard of. They are not going to go to a place they have never heard of and they are not going to buy something from a place they have never heard of.”

He said he believed advertising does not affect alcohol consumption levels. “There was a time when you went to a dinner party and you would be asked on the way in if you would like a beer, a whiskey, a gin or a vodka. Now the question is red or white. That’s a societal change. It has not happened because of advertising.”

However, Fanning said he believed advertising creates powerful brands, which, he said, “is very important when it’s entirely possible that, in five years’ time, everything sold in an Irish supermarket will have been made in China”.

An industry code to restrict alcohol advertising was introduced in 2002 and strengthened in 2008.

The codes are intended to limit the reach of alcohol advertising to young people and they apply to all media, including the internet and British television stations beamed into Ireland.

Garth argues that most people calling for a ban on alcohol advertising are not aware of the codes already in place and are not interested in knowing about them.

“If those people took the time to understand what we are trying to do, it would significantly alter their perspectives,” she says.

“Our codes are very effective. An outright ban on all alcohol advertising will simply lead to the spend migrating to foreign TV channels over which Irish legislation has no influence.”

Diageo Ireland chief executive John Kennedy is also keen for the voluntary regime to remain in place. “Watersheds don’t cover the web but our codes do. Domestic legislation can’t cover the opt-out channels but ours does. The regulatory system we have in place works and we are calling on the Government to commit to that structure once again.”

Philip Robinson, marketing director of drinks distributor Findlater, expects that, no matter what happens with the review of the codes this summer, “the environment for alcohol advertising will become increasingly tougher”.

“There is an anti-alcohol health lobby which wants to ban alcohol ads altogether,” he says.

“I definitely think that is an agenda item for some of these single-issue groups.”

What’s in a name?

It is five years since the acquisition of Chorus NTL by Liberty Global but only now has the parent company got around to renaming the Irish business UPC Ireland.

UPC is the name used by Liberty Global across Europe. The official name change is being supported by a €3 million advertising splurge.

The rebrand was due to take place three years ago but the company decided to hold off as it integrated Chorus with NTL.

“If we had done the rebrand when all that upheaval was going on internally, it would have impacted on our customers,” says UPC head of marketing Rhona Bradshaw.

The delay has been fortuitous for television presenter Craig Doyle, who is being paid to be UPC’s “brand ambassador” for the next year.

Clean-cut Doyle will be an inspired choice if he lands the gig to present RTÉ’s Saturday evening chatshow in the autumn.

Bradshaw says that, in research, Doyle scored highly for “credibility and likeability”, adding that finding a celebrity to endorse the brand was not easy.

“A lot of the sports stars and radio presenters came high on the research list but we wanted someone who wasn’t tied to any other brands,” she says.

“A brand ambassador is a good way of explaining what you and your company are about. There is not a huge amount of available personalities and the sports guys are everywhere.”