Isaac
Years ago

Removing alcohol advertising from sport a bad idea

In a reaction to talk of Family First's Senator Steve Fielding riding a ruling against alcohol advertising and sport on the alcopops bill to get it through the Senate, Harold Mitchell, executive chairman of the Mitchell Communication Group, says that "taking alcohol out of sport [advertising] will make no difference to how much people drink."

Alcohol's sponsorship of sport covers the full range. It's not just rugby league but also tennis, AFL, cricket and everything else. Sport sponsorship dollars run into the hundreds of millions.

Not to have them would be a disaster. But more importantly, banning alcohol sponsorship would make no difference to any perceived alcohol problem.

He quotes a US report:

...youth make up 13.3 per cent of the national television viewing population but on average only 9.1 per cent of the audience for televised sports with alcohol advertising.

SMH Business: Nice try, but blowing the whistle on grog won't work

Thoughts?

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: Pulteney 42
Years ago

I wouldn't say its a bad idea, i think only recently the NBA lifted a ban on alcohol advertising in certain areas of the stadium.
ie alcohol advertising couldn't be shown on nationally televised games or within the vicinity of the main TV cameras.
I think its the same with some other sports in the US.

I think alcohol advertising is fine as long as its not displayed too predominately ie. West End Sixers.

Alcohol is so expensive at the dome anyway it would most likely deter people from buying excessive amounts.

Reply #232513 | Report this post

Statman
Years ago

There is alreday laws in place that if policed would cause a reduction in binge drinking etc

IMO new laws wont do anything other than save the big companys a huge ammount of coin that they used to spend on supporting various sports via sponsorship and advertising.

Reply #232515 | Report this post

mystro
Years ago

Are they trying to make every sports club broke by removing potential sponsers? Alcohol companies have alot of money to throw around and why stop them throwing it at something that is positive for the communities around australia. I personally aren't going to get drunk just because the (insert sports team) are sponsered by a brewery, I'm going to get drunk so the ugly girls look attractive in the club lol

Reply #232516 | Report this post

me
Years ago

This is the same as the discussion held when tobacco advertising was made illeagal, and we have survived that.

The Damage that alcohol does to our society is horrendous, in my world we would ban it completely.

Reply #232578 | Report this post

Kid of an alco
Years ago

I think be done with it! In fact, AFL teams should be banned from advertising anything that is not ecologically friendly, healthy, or socially acceptable. Just think of the opportunities that exist for health groups like Jenny Craig, Viagra and Erection issues...seems like the perfect answer to replacing alcohol advertising.

Seriously though, I think that the sponsorship should not stop, but there should be much moer stringent use of the sponsorship. For example, many alcohol sponsors give product away as part of their deals, and this should cease immediately, as should naming rights. Alcohol should only be allow to sponsor under it's company banner i.e Carlton and United Breweries, or Fosters Larger...not just on the actual drinks.

However in addition to this, or firstly, perhaps they should stop there being alcohol consumed at gambling premises.

As someone who had a parent who was a chronic Gambler, Alcoholic and a smoker, we never had money in the house and the parent never admitted to spending the money on gambling and wouldn't forgo their cigarettes to give extra to their kids.

So the number one problem was being able to drink and gamble at the same time, lets deal with that issue first, if they couldn't drink then they wouldn't gamble, which means they would come home and consumer less alcohol because they are in a family environment. Good solution all round if you ask me. After all, if removing Cigarette smoking to outside the hotels and profits are dropping all over the place, imagine the damage to be done by stopping the consumption of alcohol around gambling venues.

Reply #232604 | Report this post

Hoops

Removing alcohol advertising from sport a bad idea

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