By Saabira Chaudhuri
Health concerns are sparking restrictions on advertising alcohol
on billboards and television, but on social media -- which
transcends national borders -- lax age controls and the use of
influencers make booze marketing hard to police.
While regulators from New York City to Ireland to Ethiopia have
cracked down on outdoor and broadcast ads for beer, wine and
spirits in the past year, only a handful have targeted online
ads.
That is despite studies showing online alcohol marketing is
often seen by people below the legal drinking age, and those
exposed are more likely to start drinking or to drink heavily.
"It may not be specifically targeted at children, but it is very
difficult to prevent it from appearing on their screens," the World
Health Organization wrote in a report in 2019 calling for
governments to do more to monitor and regulate online alcohol
marketing.
According to a recent study in the medical journal Academic
Pediatrics, 87% of 12- to 17-year-olds in New England recalled
internet alcohol marketing. It found that higher recall of such ads
was associated with greater odds of having had an alcoholic
drink.
The alcohol industry has embraced social media as a way to
target young adults. Pernod Ricard SA, the maker of Chivas Regal
whisky, spends about one-third of its media budget on digital
efforts and has an in-house studio to quickly create content to
capitalize on trends. Smirnoff owner Diageo PLC has credited
social-media influencers, who are paid to endorse products in
online posts, for the success of recent product launches.
Global ad spending on alcohol in online display channels, which
include social media, is forecast to rise 23% in 2020 compared with
an increase of 6.9% across all media, according to the
marketing-information firm WARC.
Companies say they don't target underage users and abide by
internal codes of conduct to ensure their marketing is
responsible.
A spokeswoman for the Distilled Spirits Council, a U.S. trade
body, says it has worked closely with social-networking sites for
more than a decade "to ensure there is technology available to
limit advertisements to only those who have registered as being
above the legal purchase age."
But the proliferation of content is proving hard for regulators
and even companies to police.
"It's like chasing the little mice in the middle of a big
field," said Carina Ferreira-Borges who works on alcohol issues for
WHO. "The digital world is, in a way, out of control, and we need
better regulation to protect young people."
While some content can't be viewed unless a social-media user is
above a particular age, there is little to stop people from lying
about their ages.
The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking, an industry
group, in November said it would work with Facebook, Instagram,
Snapchat and YouTube to incorporate data beyond the age provided by
users to better target alcohol ads. This could include whether they
have friends who are underage or use the apps at locations
frequented by younger people.
Many alcohol brands don't consistently use age-gating mechanisms
provided by social-media platforms. An analysis of verified
Instagram accounts in mid-January by The Wall Street Journal found
underage users were able to view online profiles of 12 of the 20
top-selling beer brands in the U.S., 11 of the top 20 spirits
brands, and nine of the top 20 wine brands, as ranked by industry
tracker IWSR.
To check if users who are below the legal drinking age of 21 in
the U.S. could view marketing content, the Journal set up a dummy
Instagram profile using a birth date of January 2005, making the
user 15 years old.
The account was able to follow the global or U.S. accounts of
brands including Anheuser-Busch InBev SA's Budweiser and Stella
Artois, Pernod's Absolut Elyx vodka, Diageo's Guinness beer and
Sazerac Co.'s Fireball whiskey, most with more than 100,000
follows. Instagram's algorithm then suggested the Journal's
underage account follow other booze-related profiles.
"We are working closely with these brands to work through what
may have happened and how they can use the tools to ensure their
accounts have the proper age restrictions in place," a spokeswoman
for Instagram's parent company, Facebook Inc., said.
Instagram recently began allowing businesses and influencers to
age-restrict their own accounts, rather than having to request the
measure.
Companies said they were investigating why pages were viewable
to the Journal's underage account; several brands introduced age
restrictions on their profiles after being contacted. The Distilled
Spirits Council said spirits companies regularly monitor their
online content and instruct viewers not to forward it to people
below the legal drinking age.
Social-media platforms appear to be focused more on issues such
as preventing hate speech than on alcohol advertising, said
Aleksandra Kaczmarek, head of policy at Eurocare, an alcohol
harm-reduction group.
"For the moment, the movement to regulate alcohol advertising
online isn't big enough to threaten their business model," said Ms.
Kaczmarek, who advocates removing alcohol ads from the
internet.
The use of social-media influencers to market alcohol is
particularly problematic. They often have thousands of underage
followers, and posts featuring booze are sprinkled amid otherwise
age-appropriate content.
The International Alliance for Responsible Drinking said it has
asked social-media platforms to let influencers age-restrict
individual pieces of content so their posts about alcohol aren't
viewed by everyone.
Instagram, which is particularly popular among influencers, said
it is working on allowing age restrictions for individual posts but
can't say when they would be introduced.
In countries where alcohol ad bans were written before the
internet, such as India and Poland, social media provides a
loophole.
"Suddenly countries that have been very restrictive on alcohol
advertising have found growing advertising online," said Kalle
Dramstad, head of European policy at IOGT, a network of
organizations focused on reducing alcohol harm.
Some countries are starting to crack down. Sweden is considering
a proposal to ban alcohol ads on social media. Lithuania in 2018
banned all alcohol marketing including digital. Thailand is
considering similar restrictions.
David Jernigan, a professor at Boston University's school of
public health, is working with countries like Thailand to implement
national restrictions but nonetheless favors a global ban.
"A lot of us on the public-health side are looking towards the
tobacco model," Mr. Jernigan said, referring to the Framework
Convention on Tobacco Control, a WHO treaty that has 168 signatory
countries and prohibits tobacco advertising, sponsorship and
promotion. "The marketing readily transcends national borders and
it makes national-level approaches difficult."
Write to Saabira Chaudhuri at saabira.chaudhuri@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
February 02, 2020 11:14 ET (16:14 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2020 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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