Car Race Advertisers Use Loophole To Promote Booze To Teens

Media Release

Date: 9 October 2009

Contact: Rebecca Cook 0438 316 435

Car Race Advertisers Use Loophole to Promote Booze to Teens

Children are being exposed to excessive levels of advertising by alcohol companies that are able to use live sporting events to advertise outside of the 8:30pm watershed.

Live sporting events, such as this weekend's car race at Mt Panorama, Bathurst (NSW), do not have bans on alcohol advertising because of a loophole in the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, according to Craig Sinclair, Director of Cancer Council Victoria's Cancer Prevention Centre.

"Advertising alcohol fuels pro-drinking attitudes in children. It persuades them that these products are attractive, glamorous and risk-free whereas in reality, alcohol causes 13 percent of all deaths among 1417 year olds.

"These live sporting events not only have alcohol promotions in the ad breaks, they also have alcohol sponsorship right through the event coverage which introduces and familiarises children with alcohol brands and promotes drinking.

"Last year 116,000 children and young people aged 517 tuned into the live coverage of the race and were exposed to up to nine alcohol ads in the last two hours of the event. This is in addition to the considerable incidental alcohol sponsorship and branding viewed during the race itself," said Mr Sinclair.

Cancer Council Victoria calculates that children and young people were exposed to a total of approximately 34 minutes of direct alcohol advertising and promotion during the telecast of the 2008 race and this is expected to be similar this year with a new alcohol sponsor coming on board.

"It is accepted that children should be protected from alcohol advertising, however, Free TV that administers the Code continues to support a loophole which enables alcoholic beverages to be advertised during live sporting events on weekends and public holidays.

"The Code, which is currently under review, is in complete conflict with other regulations such as the Children's Television Standards which strictly prohibit alcohol advertising when children are watching TV. The Code should be updated to remove the exclusion that permits alcohol producers from advertising during broadcasts of live sporting events," said Mr Sinclair.

Throughout 2008, alcohol companies spent $109 million[1] on advertising. Last year's V8 supercars in Bathurst was sponsored by a combination of six alcohol producers and retailers as well as advertising in the breaks by three alcohol brands.

"Research consistently shows that the more alcohol advertising children and young people are exposed to, the more likely they are to drink. Drinking alcohol from a young age is harmful and can lead to an increased risk of certain cancers. Allowing this loophole to persist is endangering the long-term health and lives of our young people.

"Another concern is that the event is most popular with boys and young men who will soon be driving themselves. We know that men accounted for 82 percent of all deaths where the driver had a blood alcohol reading over the legal limit in 2008. Permiting a loophole like this perpetuates the dangerous myth that motor sports and alcohol, go together," said Mr Sinclair.

ENDS

Background information

The Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice (CTICP) regulates the placement of alcohol advertisements on all free to air TV broadcasts.[2] To limit the exposure of young people to alcohol advertisements, the CTICP provides that a commercial that is a direct advertisement for alcoholic drinks may be broadcast only in M, MA or AV classification periods (8.30pm 5.00am) or as an accompaniment to live broadcasts of sporting events. Advertisements to children during C or Children classification periods must also not be for, or relate in any way to, alcoholic drinks or draw any association with companies that supply alcoholic drinks.[3]

The Children Televisions Standards (CTS) provides:

[1] Advertisements for alcoholic beverages may not be broadcast during a C period

[2] No advertisement or sponsorship announcement broadcast during a C period may identify or refer to a company, person, or organisation whose principal activity is the manufacture, distribution or sale of alcoholic drinks. This requirement is in addition to the requirements of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice.

1 Adnews,Top Advertisers 2008, 27 March 2009
2 There is no equivalent regulation of PAY-TV broadcasts in Australia.
3 Sections 2.9 and 6.7, Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice, p. 42-44. Available at:
http://www.freetv.com.au/media/Code_of_Practice/Revised_Code_of_Practice_(including%20amendment%20for%20election%20period)_060907.pdf.

[3] No advertisement for alcoholic drinks may be broadcast during a C program or P program that is broadcast outside a C period or P period, or in a break immediately before or after any C program or P program.

[4] No advertisement or sponsorship announcement broadcast during a C program or P program that is broadcast outside a C period or P period, or in a break immediately before or after such a C program or P program, may identify or refer to a company, person or organisation whose principal activity is the manufacture, distribution or sale of alcoholic drinks. This requirement is in addition to the requirements of the Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice.

Apart from the CTICP and CTS, alcohol advertising in Australia is predominantly self-regulated by industry. The Advertising Standards Bureau administers a general Code of Ethics, applying to all forms of advertising. Additionally a group of three alcohol industry associations - Australasian Associated Brewers Inc, the Distilled Spirits Industry Council of Australia Inc and the Winemakers Federation of Australia - administers the voluntary Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC) that applies specifically to the advertising of alcohol. ABAC incorporates advertising guidelines, a mechanism for pre-vetting of advertisements in development and a complaints panel that adjudicates formal objections to advertisements.

ABAC requires advertisements to present a mature, balanced and responsible approach to drinking. Specifically, alcohol advertisements are not to have strong or evident appeal to children or adolescents, depict the consumption or presence of alcohol as contributing to personal, business, social, sporting, sexual or other success, or suggest alcohol contributed to a change in mood or environment.[4]

4 Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code. Available at:
http://www.abac.org.au/uploads/File/ABAC%20Code%20(October%202007).pdf.

www.cancervic.org.au

Cancer Council Helpline 13 11 20


SOURCE: Cancer Council Victoria