Industry Self-regulation of alcohol marketing: A systematic review of content and exposure research

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: With governments increasingly relying on the alcohol industry's self-regulated marketing codes to restrict alcohol marketing activity, there is a need to summarize the findings of research relevant to alcohol marketing controls. This paper provides a systematic review of studies investigating the content of, and exposure to, alcohol marketing in relation to self-regulated guidelines. METHODS: Peer-reviewed articles were identified through four literature search engines: SCOPUS, Web of Science, PubMed, and PsychINFO. Non-peer reviewed reports produced by public health agencies, alcohol research centers, non-governmental organizations, and government research centers were also identified. 96 publications met the inclusion criteria. RESULTS: Of the 19 studies evaluating a specific marketing code and 25 content analysis studies reviewed, all detected content that could be considered potentially harmful to children and adolescents, including themes that strongly appeal to young men. Of the 57 studies of alcohol advertising exposure, high levels of youth exposure and high awareness of alcohol advertising were found for television, radio, print, digital, and outdoor ads. Youth exposure to alcohol advertising has increased over time, even as greater compliance with exposure thresholds has been documented. CONCLUSIONS: Violations of the content guidelines within self-regulated alcohol marketing codes are highly prevalent in certain media. Exposure to alcohol marketing, particularly among youth, is also prevalent. Taken together, the findings suggest that the current self-regulatory systems that govern alcohol marketing practices are not meeting their intended goal of protecting vulnerable populations

An Empirical Evaluation of the US Beer Institute’s Self-Regulation Code Governing the Content of Beer Advertising

Objectives. We evaluated advertising code violations using the US Beer Institute guidelines for responsible advertising. Methods. We applied the Delphi rating technique to all beer ads (n = 289) broadcast in national markets between 1999 and 2008 during the National Collegiate Athletic Association basketball tournament games. Fifteen public health professionals completed ratings using quantitative scales measuring the content of alcohol advertisements (e.g., perceived actor age, portrayal of excessive drinking) according to 1997 and 2006 versions of the Beer Institute Code. Results. Depending on the code version, exclusion criteria, and scoring method, expert raters found that between 35% and 74% of the ads had code violations. There were significant differences among producers in the frequency with which ads with violations were broadcast, but not in the proportions of unique ads with violations. Guidelines most likely to be violated included the association of beer drinking with social success and the use of content appealing to persons younger than 21 years. Conclusions. The alcohol industry’s current self-regulatory framework is ineffective at preventing content violations but could be improved by the use of new rating procedures designed to better detect content code violations