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16|11|07

Ofcom and ASA publish research on the impact of alcohol advertising rules

Update 16/11/07: This release has been updated to correct an error in the final bullet under key findings. Updated version below.

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.

Considerable market changes since 2005 mean that the two research waves are not directly comparable. Although the second wave (June 2007) does not generate conclusive data on the impact of the rule changes, it provides information on trends and statistics that will be useful for informing the ASA Council on future decisions about whether specific ads have breached the alcohol code rules.

In addition, the research has identified changes in reported drinking behaviour between 2005 and 2007, including:

• The proportion of 11-13 year olds who have never drunk alcohol has increased from 31% in 2005 to 46% in 2007. (This is consistent with the findings of a 2007 Government report - ‘Safe. Sensible. Social. The next steps in the National Alcohol Strategy’, HM Government June 2007 - which found that there has been an increase in the proportion of 11-15 year olds who claim not to drink alcohol since 2001).
• There has been very little change in the proportion of 11-17 years olds saying they regularly drink to get drunk.
• Alcopops have declined in popularity. Between 2005-2007, there has been an 11% drop across all ages of those who claim to have drunk alcopops in the last six months.
• There has been an increase in the amount of cider that young people report drinking. This is particularly the case among 14-17 and 18-21 year olds – three in ten young people from both these groups have drunk cider in the last six months (compared to 14% and 11% respectively in 2005). The proportion of television spend represented by the cider market increased from 1.8% in 2002 to 15.5% in 2006.

Ofcom’s Director of Content, Kate Stross, said: “This research shows that the revised rules on alcohol advertising have ensured that fewer young people feel that TV ads are aimed at them. These are issues of considerable public concern. We welcome the fact the ASA will keep the matter under review and ensure the rules remain effective and appropriate.”

The ASA Director General, Christopher Graham said: “The ASA welcomes this report as part of an ongoing process of implementing the new rules rigorously. It is of concern that some ads are still of strong appeal to under-18s, but the ASA stands willing and ready to play its part in tackling this issue. We will be taking the findings of the report on board when assessing ads against the Codes to ensure that young people are protected.”

The research report on Young People and Alcohol Advertising is available at www.ofcom.org.uk and www.asa.org.uk.

Ends.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

1. The current rules for alcohol advertising, introduced in 2005, include requirements that:

• Advertisements for alcoholic drinks on television must not be likely to appeal strongly to people under 18, in particular by reflecting or being associated with youth culture;
• Advertisements must not link alcohol with sexual activity or success or imply that alcohol can enhance attractiveness;
• Television advertising for alcoholic drinks must not show, imply, or refer to daring, toughness, aggression or unruly, irresponsible or anti-social behaviour;
• Alcoholic drinks must be handled and served responsibly in television advertising.

2. A number of significant changes have taken place both within the advertising industry and more broadly since the new content rules came into effect on 1 January 2005.

• Spend on alcohol advertising generally and specifically on TV has fallen sharply.
• Children and young people are seeing fewer alcohol adverts overall.
• Licensing laws have been liberalised.
• Drink awareness advertising campaigns have been launched.
• Different types of drink are now popular.

These wider market changes make it difficult to make direct comparisons on the impact of the changes to the advertising content rules between 2005 and 2007.

3. Ofcom contracted out the day-to-day regulation of broadcast advertising content to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in November 2004.

The ASA is responsible for the handling of complaints from consumers and the industry about advertising.

The Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) is responsible for setting, reviewing and revising standards codes for broadcast advertising. The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) is responsible for writing and maintaining the non-broadcast Code.

4.Ofcom is the independent regulator and competition authority for the UK communications industries, with responsibilities across television, radio, telecommunications and wireless communications services.

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