Dialogue: It's not as if watching TV booze ads is thirsty work

By NICKI STEWART*

Last time you saw a television advertisement for a power company, did you jump up and switch on some more lights? Last time an advertsiement for petrol blazed across the screen, did you take a spontaneous joyride?

Rather unlikely. Unless, of course, you subscribe to the view that advertising alcoholic drink on television leads to greater consumption.

The claim by Roger Eccles, of Alcohol Healthwatch, that such advertising increases consumption flies equally strongly in the face of both the facts and of logic.

First, the facts. Since advertising of alcohol on television began in 1992, consumption has not soared. Statistics New Zealand research shows that the consumption of beer has decreased from 4.09 litres to 3.31 litres of alcohol a head since the first advertisement screened. The total of beer, wine and spirits consumed declined from 7.2 litres to 6.95 litres over the same period.

Interestingly, the move to moderation has been most marked in beer, the most heavily advertised alcoholic drink on television, while consumption of spirits - particularly ready-to-drink products - has increased slightly, despite being one of the least-advertised range of drinks.

This poses the obvious question: why advertise at all? The answer is certainly not to increase total sales - if it were, the producers would have stopped advertising long ago - but to encourage consumers to prefer one brand over another.

After all, a simple mathematical sum shows that producers have significantly more incentive to increase the market share of their products than to attempt to expand the total market.

Let's take an American example. The total retail value of beer produced each year in the United States is about $US50 billion. If a producer's advertising campaign increases its market share by 1 per cent, its sales would increase by $500 million. However, if the total market for beer increased by 1 per cent, a large brand with a 10 per cent share of the market would experience a sales increase of only $50 million.

Producers know only too well that the market for alcohol in New Zealand is mature and that changing this would be akin to observing King Canute on holiday at the beach.

"But," cry the diehard critics, "don't alcohol advertisements portray the products being enjoyed in appealing settings and by attractive people?"

Yes, they do - just like advertisements for anything from cars to coffee to dishwashing liquid. It does not mean people end up with more suds in their kitchen sink or cars in the garage.

This night-follows-day logic is supported by a raft of research. Extensive independent reviews undertaken by Justice Sir Ian Barker QC (1998) and Judith Potter (1994), now Justice Potter, have found no link between advertising and total consumption and, further, found no evidence to support a ban on the advertising of alcohol.

The reality is that viewers see alcohol portrayed up to 10 times more often in television programmes than in advertising. Just think of Coronation Street or Shortland Street for a moment. Should we, then, ban all programmes that feature alcohol, including cooking programmes using wine?

In fact, there is a strong argument for saying that banning advertising will hinder the process of moving to a more mature social environment.

An oft-repeated argument used by the turn-back-the-clock types is that advertising alcohol on television normalises it. They are absolutely right. The vast majority of adults consume alcohol in a normal way - in moderation. If we treat alcohol as dangerous substances, we transform them from the ordinary to the extraordinary.

The normalcy of alcohol advertisements helps to demystify the product - a means of encouraging realistic, moderate and responsible attitudes towards consumption.

And the best means of encouragement is in the home. According to an America's Youth Roper report, 62 per cent of Americans aged 12 to 17 identified their parents as a leading influence on their decision about drinking. Television was a distant fourth of the six biggest influences, behind friends and teachers.

The reality is that people just don't find watching television advertisements thirsty work.

* Nicki Stewart is the chief executive of the Beer, Wine and Spirits Council.