Alcohol companies are exploiting TV rules in order to target sports viewers, saturating vulnerable young fans, new research has found.
Cricket watchers were exposed to nearly nine hours of advertising, totalling 4600 alcohol promotions, in just three one-day matches during the 2013/14 season, the Cancer Council Victoria and the University of Wollongong reported.
During another Twenty20 game, one-in-four ads was for an alcohol product or retailer, it found.
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The heavy exposure, allowed by a broadcasting rule loophole, is particularly concerning because of its effect on children and young people, said a Cancer Council Victoria spokeswoman.
“What kind of message are we sending to young people if every time they see their sporting heroes on television they are essentially acting as mobile billboards for alcohol?” said the council’s senior legal policy adviser Sondra Davoren.
A father is given a beer prize during the 13/14 cricket season, which research shows was dominated by alcohol ads. Photo: AAP
The report coincides with a recently announced review of the broadcasting code, which proposed to lower the alcohol advertising cut-off time by an hour, from 8:30pm to 7:30pm.
In 2009, the National Preventative Health Taskforce called for alcohol promotions in sport to be phased out in order to protect children and young people, but little has been done in Australia.
In contrast, France has completely banned alcohol advertising in sport, and the UK, Ireland and South Africa are reportedly moving towards similar bans.
“Alcohol promotion and sport should not go hand in hand and Australia needs to step up,” Ms Davoren said.
The biggest advertiser during the one day international series was major sponsor Carlton United Breweries, with a total of 4,349 incidences.
Last year, the alcohol industry hit back at calls from The Greens Party for tighter regulation, calling the argument ‘flawed’.
At the time, Greens health spokesman and former GP Richard Di Natale claimed that alcohol branding in cricket and football promoted a “dangerous and unhealthy” culture of drinking, and was the “dark side” of Australian sport.
A Carlton United spokesman said that lowered drinking rates, especially amongst under-age Australians, showed that the industry was responsible.
“It’s what I call the inconvenient truth for the health lobby because the numbers just don’t match their argument,” the spokesman said at the time.
“There is no need for new regulation because the industry is well managed and acting responsibly.”
