Rogue alcohol ad watchdog reckons 42 out of 44 advertisers are guilty
The self-appointed “Alcohol Advertising Review Board” set up by anti-alcohol campaigners in competition to the Advertising Standards Board has published its first findings.
The AARB’s first batch of findings dismissed just two out of 44 cases it looked at – upholding the other 42 in full or in part.
The volume of anti-industry determinations is in marked contrast to the ASB, which tends to uphold just three or four complaints a month across the whole advertising industry.
The AARB is operated by the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth and Cancer Council WA. At first glance its website appears to make it an official industry body. In March, the ASB labeled it a “self-appointed activist ad review board with zero authority”.
The AARB claims that its determinations are based on the ad industry’s own codes. The organisation’s chair Prof Fiona Stanley claimed in a press release:
“This shows a deeply disturbing range of alcohol advertising and promotion that simply should not be permitted”.
“What reason can there be to expose young people and children to the association of alcohol with their sporting heroes or with behaviours such as driving fast cars and surfing, to promote products in ways that must appeal to young people, and to promote alcohol on university campuses?
It cannot be responsible to advertise spirits in association with music festivals attended by young people, or to link alcohol with images of women in lingerie captioned ‘Wood U?’. It is time to nameand shame the companies that advertise alcohol irresponsibly and particularly to challenge them to promote their products in ways that do not appeal to young people”.
“In an Olympic week, the Gold medal for tasteless or inappropriate alcohol promotion goes to the Carlton Draught AFL sponsorship. The Silver medal goes to the Jim Beam on Campus promotion which clearly targets young people and is associated with Facebook images that are utterly inappropriate, and the Bronze medal goes to Skinnygirl Cocktails which must be of appeal to young women.”
1.30pm update: Scott McClellan, CEO of the Australian Association of National Advertisers issued a statement saying:
“This report has zero credibility or standing. The authors set themselves up as judge, jury and executioner. The AARB said from the outset they want to tear down the self-regulatory advertising system, they then used their own networks and fellow travellers to generate anonymous complaints and then themselves adjudicated on the same complaints; there was no community consultation and no attempt to adjudicate according to community standards.
“Furthermore, they created the false impression that the AARB provided the public with an alternative complaints resolution mechanism when in fact it could not.”
…and while you’re all at it, NO RUNNING WITH SCISSORS EITHER.
This is such a joke.
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As director of the Independent Advertising Review Board Review Board I feel obliged to share our findings that 100% of Advertising Review Boards have at least 80% of their heads shoved firmly up their backsides.
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95% of the time, codes are breached every time
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Silly – the real ASB has lots of community people on the board – not just people from the ad industry
http://www.adstandards.com.au/.....erprofiles
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So they’re suggesting that we advertise the products in a social vacuum, ignoring the fact that alcohol IS associated with the activities listed and it IS consumed by YOUNG people.
Yes, that association is partially created by advertising and sponsorships, but by and large it is society that associates a product with a particular event or activity.
You could spend millions on attempting to associate yoghurt with rugby league, but I don’t like the chances of getting your average rugby fan to bring a sixpack of Yoplait to the next Storm game.
All the ads are doing is creating positive emotions around a particular product. As long as they’re not breaching existing alcohol regulations (which are there for good reason) then live and let live, I say.
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Statistically this doesn’t accord. They have upheld 42 of 44 cases, That is, 95.5% of ads are ‘in breach’ of their standards, which is an inordinately high proportion.
So, ask yourself the question – when I see alcohol ads on TV do 95% of them breach my understanding of what acolohol ads should and shouldn’t do (i.e. advertise to under-age drinkers, glorify alcohol consumption, increase your chances of scoring on a night out etc). If they don’t then ask yourself are you in the minority?
Even better, why doesn’t the alcohol industry stump up the funds to conduct some unbiased research into how the COMMUNITY feels? We could then see whether the AARB’s high rejection rate or the ASB’s low rejection rate most closely matches the community’s beliefs – or indeed whether neither do.
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