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Friday, November 16, 2007

Press Release - Ofcom and ASA publish research on the impact of alcohol advertising rules
16 November 2007

Ofcom and Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have today jointly published a research report on the impact of alcohol advertising on young people following the tightening of the Advertising Codes in October 2005.

The new rules were designed to make alcohol advertisements less appealing to the under 18s and, in particular, to prevent alcohol advertisements from being associated with or reflecting youth culture.

Ofcom, together with its co-regulatory partner, ASA, jointly commissioned a two-part research project to examine the appeal of alcohol advertisements to under-18s.

The aim of the first wave of research published in December 2005 was to establish the appeal of alcohol advertising to young people, and was created as a benchmark against which the impact of the new rules could be assessed.

The second wave of research aimed to evaluate the impact of the tightened Codes and the changes to the alcohol market over the last two years.

Ofcom and ASA deliberately set tough criteria for choosing which ads would be included in the research. This means that the research looked at the appeal of ads aimed at the younger end of the legitimate market, but whose appeal might also extend to those under the age of 18. In 2007 finding such ads was more difficult, suggesting that the new codes have already had an effect on marketing techniques.

Key findings from the second part of the research published today show:

  • Alcoholic drink suppliers have shifted their advertising spend away from television with a reduction of 26.2% on TV compared to a 2.9% fall via all media from 2005-2007.
  • Children and young adults are being exposed to fewer alcohol advertisements on television. Between 2002 and 2006 advertising impacts fell by 31% for 16-24 year olds and 39% for 10-15 year olds.
  • There has been a significant decline in the proportion of young people saying that they feel alcohol adverts are aimed at them.
  • Young people do feel advertisements make the drink look appealing and that the adverts will encourage people to drink, with 34% believing this to be the case in 2007 compared with 25% in 2005.
  • There has been a significant decline in young people’s recall of alcohol adverts, with unprompted mentions of alcohol ads remembered down from an average of 3.95 ads remembered to 3.31.
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