Alcohol advertising & sponsorship in Sport:Young people need a sporting chance.A/Prof Kerry O’Brien

Acknowledgements:

Dr Sherilene Carr

Sport is a primary vehicle for alcohol industry marketing of alcohol to young people.

• Figures ~60%-80% of all marketing dollars spent by the alcohol industry are in Sport (incl. sponsorship).

• Sport is a central element of Australian culture and alcohol is tagging along to also be seen as central to being Australian.

• Emotion and identity associated with sport means that alcohol messages may be enhanced and more influential.

Direct alcohol industry sponsorship and hazardous drinking (Australia, UK, New Zealand)

35-45% of sportspeople in receipt of alcohol sponsorship

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Exposure to alcohol advertising and drinking in young people

• Association between exposure to alcohol advertising and drinking behaviours in young people. Anderson et al., Alcohol Alcoholism 2009; 44: 229

• Earlier initiation, and greater consumption in those already drinking.

Sport Contexts• Greater exposure to sport TV at age 12 years greater beer consumption

13 years Stacy et al. Am J Health Behav. 2004;28(6):498-509

• Greater liking of alcohol ads involving sport and/or shown during sport programing greater intention to purchase alcohol. Chen et al. J Health Commun 2005,10(6),553

1. Children’s Television Standards2. Commercial Television Industry Code of Practice

Extent of alcohol advertising in sport vs. non-sport TV in Australia, and children’s viewing times

Questions:•What is the extent of alcohol advertising in Australian sport TV compared to non-sport TV?

•How many children viewing at times when alcohol advertising is known to be on TV?

•What is the influence of this advertising?

• Purchased information on all alcohol advertising for 2012 in commercial free-to-air TV for the five major metropolitan centres of Australia.

• Purchased viewing audience data (OzTAM) for young age groups 0-4, 5-13, 14-17, 18-29 years.

• Conducted analysis of alcohol advertising in sport TV vs. non-sport TV at different times of the day, and estimated TV audiences.

Figure: Total number of alcohol ads broadcast during each sporting code for 2012.

UEFA Champions League Football

On field, uniform and event sponsorship

6am to 8.29pm

Figure: Alcohol advertising counts and children’s viewing audience per ½ hour. Bars represent total number of alcohol advertisements broadcast during sport and non-sport TV in each half hour time period for 2012 for the five metropolitan regions (left vertical axis) from

8.30pm -midnight

Summary Results: •25,792 alcohol ads on free-to-air television in 2012

•During the daytime (6am-8.30pm), 87% of alcohol ads were in sport TV.

•In the evening (8.30pm-11.59), 86% were in non-sport TV.

•Little difference in the mean number of children (0-17) viewing TV in the evening (N=273,989) vs. daytime (N=235,233).

•In programs containing alcohol ads, sport TV had a greater mean number of alcohol ads per hour than non-sport TV (1.74 vs. 1.35, p < .001).

Alcohol advertising density in Australian TV sport

•Taking into account that Sport TV is only 9% of all TV programming time, for primary channels (91% of viewing audiences), there was....

4.3 alcohol ads in sport TV for every 1 in non-sport TV

Conclusions.•Alcohol advertising during the daytime, when large numbers of children are watching TV, is predominantly in free-to-air sport TV. •By permitting day-time advertising in sport TV programs, children are going to be regularly exposed to alcohol advertising and sponsorship.

•Current regulations are not achieving there stated intent, that is, to protect children from exposure to alcohol advertising.