This week the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) held a conference on Alcohol & marketing: protecting the vulnerable with a range of presentations, audio , and animations available to download.
The event featured presentations including Prof David Jernigan exploring 'Alcohol Marketing and Public Health – what do we know and what can we do?' and Dr Nathan Critchlow on 'Regulating alcohol marketing in the digital 'Wild West''. A presentation by Dr Amanda Atkinson explored alcohol marketing gender roles and stereotypes following the release of a new report reviewing the literature exploring the ways in which women are both targeted and represented in alcohol brand and nightlife marketing.
As highlighted in an IAS blog, the report found that since the 1990s there has been a 'clear feminisation of alcohol products, drinking spaces and drinking culture, and increased targeting of women through a number of strategies'. Products targeting women include low calorie/carbohydrate, and low-, reduced-, and alcohol-free products, including more recently the brand of ‘Petite Prosecco’ and other ‘low calorie’ options. The report says such products and their marketing draw on women’s insecurities and anxieties over body image and use the ideal of female slimness to influence brand choice.
The report explores the complexity of gendered marketing techniques including messages of empowerment, referred to as a form of ‘commodity’ feminism, or ‘femvertising’, whereby brands aim to sell products through disseminating messages of gender equality, and linking up with campaign groups and charities. Whilst these efforts may be seen as positive in some regards, they are still considered as ways to market alcohol and the review found a range of other issues, such as how brand and Night Time Economy marketing content that normalises the objectification and sexualisation of women, and the current landscape of marketing self-regulation.
The event also followed a conference held by Balance North East exploring the issues around children, teenagers and alcohol and the global pressures the young generation is under to drink. Whilst drinking amongst younger people has been declining, evidence of significant harm was still presented and the CMO's recommendation of an alcohol-free childhood is still far from reality. See #alcoholfreechildhood for Twitter coverage of the event.
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