Associate Feature: Busting the myth that young people are increasingly “exposed” to alcohol advertising on TV

The myth that young people in Scotland are increasingly “exposed” to alcohol advertising has become common currency in the public health policy debate and was part of the foundation upon which the Scottish Government built its consultation on banning alcohol marketing last year.

The trope that young people are bombarded with alcohol advertising has largely been accepted as a universal truth without question by MSPs of all parties. 

However, new research published by the Advertising Standards Authority brought home in stark terms just how flawed assumptions underpinning this point of view/perspective are. 

The ASA report found that between 2010 and 2023, the exposure of under-18s to alcohol advertising on TV across the United Kingdom fell by 80% to 0.7 adverts per week. That represents the lowest level reached in the 14 years that this metric has been tracked.

It is unequivocal evidence that the premise, perpetuated by some that “exposure” to alcohol advertising is increasing, is false.

Of course, TV is only one source of advertising, but when the Scottish Government published its Alcohol Policy Framework in 2018 – the document that eventually led to its proposals to ban alcohol marketing - one of its key pillars claimed that “prime time television remains a constant source of exposure to alcohol imagery” for young people.

While TV advertising remains reserved to Westminster, and therefore out of Scottish Government scope, the Alcohol Policy Framework went on to call on the UK Government to “develop an approach which protects children and young people from exposure to alcohol advertising”.

While the decline to some extent reflected an overall decline in the number of adverts seen by children on TV, declining by three quarters, the number of alcohol adverts declined at a faster rate, by four fifths over the same time period.

Again, undermining the commonly propagated view that “exposure” to alcohol advertising is increasing. It is not, it is decreasing.

Of course, regardless of these figures, there remains an even more deeply flawed prospectus, which is that if a young person sees an alcohol advert they are more likely to drink alcohol.

But again, the evidence continues to defy the myth. The Scottish Health Survey shows that between 2008 and 2022 the number of 16-24-year-olds drinking above the Chief Medical Officer guidelines fell by 42%. While Scottish Government figures showed that from 2004 to 2018 the number of 13-15-year-olds drinking on a weekly basis fell by 58%.

The evidence is clear and positive – young people in Scotland are less likely to drink alcohol than previous generations, and they are seeing less alcohol advertising on television.

The paradigm upon which the Scottish Government approach has been based is doubly flawed, firstly in its premise that young people are increasingly “exposed” to alcohol advertising, and secondly young people are therefore more likely to drink alcohol. Neither premise withstands careful scrutiny.

Following the comprehensive rejection of its proposals to ban alcohol marketing, by a wide range coalition of organisations and individuals, the Scottish Government promised to go back to the drawing board. They have also promised to take an evidence-based-approach to reshaping any future policy proposals.

The ASA report is clear evidence that the underlying foundations of previous policy proposals have been undermined. Positive culture change is happening. Young people are drinking less. It’s time for the Scottish Government to heed the reality, not the myth.

This article is sponsored by Scottish Alcohol Industry Partnership (SAIP)

www.saip.org.uk