Drinks Ireland has said that it is continuing to work with stakeholders to put further safeguards in place to prevent minors from seeing alcohol marketing online.
In September 2018, Drinks Ireland, which represents alcohol drinks manufacturers and suppliers in Ireland, committed to work together with Facebook (incl. Instagram), Snapchat and YouTube to establish new standards and practices for marketing responsibility online.
The commitment was made through the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD), which is a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to reducing harmful drinking and promoting understanding of responsible drinking, on behalf of Drinks Ireland, which is a member of the organisation alongside other global drinks companies and representative groups.
Since then, leading drinks companies both in Ireland and globally have been working with these online platforms to implement age screening on online channels, complemented by specific and platform-appropriate technology to help ensure marketing reaches those over the legal purchase age.
In partnership with the online platforms, the industry continues to improve these protections and will roll out safeguards that help ensure that all new alcohol-related channels or campaigns are marketed responsibly online.
This partnership will also continue to work on emerging areas, including influencer advertising.
"Committed To Tackling Underage Drinking"
Drinks Ireland director Patricia Callan commented, "The drinks industry is committed to tackling underage drinking and have a long and proud history of doing our part to prevent young people being exposed to alcohol marketing.
"For example, since 2003, Ireland's drinks industry has proudly adhered to some of the strictest advertising codes in the world for both content and volume of alcohol advertising. These rules, among other things, have meant that no alcohol advertising can appeal directly to young people.
"This is reflected positively in consumption figures. The latest figures show that alcohol consumption among teenagers went from 12.7% in 2002 to 4.1% in 2014. This figure [4.1%] is well below the European average of 12.9%.
"Today we know that most young people are online and on social media, so it's vital that their exposure to alcohol marketing here is reduced. As such, we are proud to continue our work with IARD and global online platforms to do this."
© 2019 Hospitality Ireland – your source for the latest industry news. Article by Dave Simpson. Click subscribe to sign up for the Hospitality Ireland print edition.
