A total ban on alcohol advertising would have no impact on the consumption of drink, a leading member of the advertising industry has said.
Patrick Hickey, managing director of Rothco advertising, said he would welcome more stringent restrictions on the advertising of alcohol.
He was addressing the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health and Children which is currently examining issues related to the misuse of alcohol. It has heard from the drinks industry, vintners’ representatives, health professionals, anti-alcohol abuse groups, and is due to hear from the retail industry in coming weeks.
Today it heard submissions from the advertising industry and the Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI).
The alcohol industry, which spent about €40 million per year on advertising, did not seek to increase alcohol consumption, said Mr Hickey.
“The objective is about market share. An advertisement is designed to show a product in its best light.” He said advertisers aimed to persuade consumers to change their brand of beer, wine or spirit, rather than to entice new consumers to the alcohol market.
No alcohol company ever aimed their advertisements at under 18-year-olds.
Regina Doherty, TD, said she was “cynical” about claims alcohol advertisers did not target under-age drinkers.
Eamonn Maloney, TD, said the level of alcohol consumption and misuse in Ireland was a “crisis beyond a crisis” . He said alcohol advertising should be banned outright and that alcohol should not be sold in supermarkets.
“The misuse of alcohol is costing us tax-payers €3.4 billion per year. If we could get all that money that is spent on health, policing, the courts related to alcohol abuse, we could kiss the Germans and the French goodbye,” he said referring to the EU-IMF-ECB troika.
“The supermarkets are not a place for alcohol. Having it there sends a message to infants that there’s some parallel between alcohol and washing powder in the family shopping.”
Mr Hickey said a complete ban on alcohol advertising would mean particular brands that had large advertising budgets would lose market share, but the overall level of alcohol consumption would stay the same. “The [alcohol] market is the market,” he said. “We would welcome a strengthening and spread of the remit of the [advertising] code.”
Edward Cumiskey, Chair of the ASAI, said advertising codes had to “evolve and develop” and said the Authority had “very few complaints about alcohol ads.
“That may seem surprising but that’s the way it is.”
