Exposure to alcohol adverts during sports games increases cravings in people with risky drinking behaviours

WA researchers have found alcohol advertisements during sports broadcasts have consequences for people with risky drinking behaviours. The study, undertaken by Edith Cowan University researchers, found exposure to booze ads during national sports broadcasts, particularly those that feature a preferred beverage, significantly increases cravings in people with risky drinking behaviours. Led by Dr Ross Hollett, it analysed nationally televised finals matches from the AFL and the NRL to determine the frequency of alcohol ads before exposing more than 300 participants to a randomly selected ad to measure the immediate effects on alcohol cravings and drinking intentions. The experiment showed the ads had a minimal impact on the general population but for those who were risky drinkers, there was an increase in alcohol cravings, particularly those with a preference for the advertised beverage. About 31 per cent of participants reported a preference to the drink advertised, which Dr Hollett said could represent a significant number of viewers who are vulnerable to increases in their alcohol cravings. “The issue is we are not sure whether enough is being done to mitigate the risks of this type of advertising to this vulnerable subgroup,” he said. “We could see that there was hardly any health messaging, I think we came across maybe one or two alcohol health messages in the entire set of matches that we looked at. “The biggest concern is that there is quite a lot of advertising for alcohol and very little advertising to mitigate and raise awareness around the health risks of alcohol consumption. There is just no balance during live broadcasts.” He said of particular concern was Australian exemptions that allowed alcohol ads during national sports broadcasts at any time on weekends, while restrictions limit the ads before 8.30pm on other days. “There needs to be better consistency and better reasoning around these types of policies to ensure that there is this transparency and at the end of the day it is about operating in the best interests of public health and that is probably not something that we see at the moment,” he said. “Some people automatically associate watching sport with drinking alcohol, in which case it develops into a habitual issue so it would probably be beneficial to see advertising that directly addresses that link.”