"no proven link between alcohol consumption and marketing and sponsorship"

Sunny said:
Of course it makes a difference to brand awareness. Someone who wants to have a beer might choose Heineken based on their sponsorship of the rugby. The question is whether this sponsorship makes people who don't drink suddenly want to drink alcohol or makes people drink more. I haven't seen any evidence that it does.
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So let's just imagine a utopian world where no drinks company does sponsorship or advertising. You reckon that society will still drink the same amounts of alcohol regardless?
 
Complainer said:
So let's just imagine a utopian world where no drinks company does sponsorship or advertising. You reckon that society will still drink the same amounts of alcohol regardless?
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How long has alcohol been around? Do you think ancient Egyptians got drunk because they were influenced by billboards on the pyramids? People have been getting through throughout history. Nobody drinks more because of advertising. They might drink particular brands because of it. If people abuse alcohol, it's because of numerous factors. It's not because Guinness sponsored the hurling championship.

What difference has all the bans on tobacco sponsorship? I look around and young are still smoking. My friends still smoke as much.

If you think alcohol adveryising is so effective, why don't we counter it by advertising the dangers of alcohol more? It's because people know it would have the same effect on behaviour as road safety ads I.e. very little.
 
Take a look at the proposals by the Irish Society of Gastroenterology ISoG and the response by Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland ABFoI.

Proposing:

ISoG: action to be taken against cut-price alcohol.
ISoG: a 1% levy on alcohol advertising and sponsorship.
ISoG: improved investment in hospital and community-based alcohol treatment services.
ISoG: restrict availability of cheap drink in supermarkets, convenience stores and petrol stations.


Responding:

ABFoI: "There is no proven link between alcohol consumption and marketing and sponsorship."
ABFoI: "Alcohol consumption has fallen by over 19% since 2001 and we are now fast approaching EU norms."
ABFoI: "the vast majority of Irish people drink responsibly"
ABFoI: simply introducing another tax in order to fund another quango will not achieve this (reduce the level of alcohol misuse).




I invite AAMers to draw their own conclusions.
 
I got the following from http://alcoholireland.ie/facts/alcohol-related-harm-facts-and-statistics/

"Meanwhile, alcohol-related harms cost each tax payer in Ireland an estimated €3,318 a year. And that’s just the financial cost:
  • Every seven hours, someone in Ireland dies from an alcohol-related illness
  • One in eleven children in Ireland say parental alcohol use has a negative effect on their lives – that is about109,684 children
  • There are 1,200 cases of cancer each year from alcohol in Ireland
  • One in four deaths of young men aged 15-39 in Ireland is due to alcohol".
I didn't realise thing were so bad. And €3,318 per each tax payer a year? That is about 10 times the average property tax!
 
One said:
I didn't realise thing were so bad. And €3,318 per each tax payer a year? That is about 10 times the average property tax!
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While true, we need some perspective on the figures. First they are estimates using accepted European or international models. I don't knock those as such, but just bear in mind it's an estimate.

Second, using a similar European model for the cost to society of obestity, we get a figure of €4 billion a year cost to the state. Given the report on alcohol puts the cost of alcohol at €3.4 billion, does that not mean obesity is a bigger issue that we need to address?

Link to report here on obestity here:

http://www.oireachtas.ie/parliament...earch/spotlights/spotObesity071111_150658.pdf
 
none of these figures have any real evidence to back them up, they are just plucked out of thin air by nanny state do gooders!
yeah sure put up the price of drink to discourage the young people from buying it.....after all it worked so well when they did it with cigarettes!!
 
Latrade said:
Does that not mean obesity is a bigger issue that we need to address?
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This seems like yet another difficult problem to address! Who would want to be a politician in this day and age? Such a diffucult job!
 
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