Alcohol Advertising On Television & In Sport (Merged x1)

[GTRMagic]

As Mr Ruddbot displays himself on the world stage, it seems he and his minions have been thinking about the impact of the advertising of alcohol on television is having on Australian society.

There is an article in today's Sunday Telegraph Here
that suggests that there is discontent in most sports supported by the advertising of alcohol products.

From the perspective of V8Supercar, there shall be some serious challenges if the bill initiated by Family First were to be enacted...

... primarily meaning that alcohol products could not be advertised between 5am and 9pm.... so unless the #7 network planned on delaying telecasts until those times (like many moons ago.. ) the sport will have a number of income streams at risk.

For V8Supercar, platform sponsorship of the series itself is supported by the XXXX company... while DJR is supported by the Jim Beam brand, and PMM is supported by the Sirromet brand. In many other categories, alcohol product sponsorships have adorned plenty of vehicles, such as Mr Simonsen's Coopers' Ferrari... amongst others

The interesting piece of the article is that it suggests that ticket prices at the football, cricket or other venues. Whilst not mentioning a direct reference to VESA, it would be likely that track signage would also be limited by the proposed ban... and to recoup the monies, promoters would likely need to put prices up to cover the sanctioning fee.

Of course there is no noise around the timing of this change, if indeed it happens, but the ramifications are not insignificant.... especially if it means that entire teams need to find alternative backing for their operations

[NewsStalker]

Putting the 'serious cap' on for a minute, hasn't it ever seemed strange that a sport that has a zero tolerance to alcohol in drivers and officials (supposedly, unless you are a senior marshal!), seems to go out of its way to encourage alcohol companies to spend their advertising revenue within the sport?

For instance, VB with their pre-race 'motorkhana's' a few years ago (of which a couple very nearly came a cropper at a couple of circuits!); the Toohey's Bathurst 1000 (when the police were supposedly battling drunks on top of the mountain) etc.

Personally I find it extremely inconsistent that a legal product (i.e. tobacco) is banned from being advertised because of 'the costs; to the community it has (and I do not dispute this btw), yet another legal product is almost allowed catre blanche in its advertising yet in addition to its outright cost to the community (deaths, damage etc) it has a much higher hidden cost that never seems to be taken into account (the drunks at home who decide to use bodies as punching bags; the families of people killed by drunks etc).

So why should it come as such a surprise that, finally, someone has the guts to say 'ban alcolhol advertising' - again, personally, my only regret is that it isn't banned completely ala cigarette advertising.

However - maybe that day won't be too far away.

[peckstar]

was that ad for the alcohol companies brought out oj April fools day?

[Pro Racer]

well read that storey in the Telecrapola today, it's abit of a strech VB sponser alot of things Cricket aswell as Ch 9 have Jonny Walker trivia, to me i agree with the sports stars and athletes doing ad's etc about alcohol which was announced earlier in the year, but neally every sport will have to be shown late at night as they have alcohol sponsership.

[db120176]

France is the only western nation I can think of with such draconian legislation banning the promotion of tobacco and alchohol (I know alchohol advertising is banned in the middle east for slightly different reasons). If you consider the knock touring cars got when tobacco advertising was banned, this may be another disaster.

As a sidebar to this item, can anybody confirm if any new beer sponsorship can be negotiated by teams? Just thinking about the Sprint Cup in the US trying to ban AT&T from advertising on a car (after the Cingular sponsorship was "grandfathered" in)

[Muznik]

Well I for one think the do gooders could have this blow up in their face!

I grew up a die hard League fan in western Sydney when it was the Winfield Cup. Cricket was sponsored by Benson & Hedges and my motorsport idol drove for Marlboro. Guess what? I have never been a smoker.

However I was fit & healthy by participating in the sports these products sponsored/promoted.

When getting Corporate sponsorship is such a struggle today i think they need to weigh up the good with the bad. Think im over reacting ? Dont forget they are trying to ban the advertising of junk food during "children's viewing" hours. So does that mean we can say goodbye to Coke, Cadbury, Nestle, KFC, MCDonalds, Pizza Hut (etc etc) sponsoring sport that is shown in these time slots ???

The Govt runs Lotto & lotteries when gambling is a big scurge on society but excuse it because the profits are used on Hospitals, Schools etc.
How is this any different ? The alcohol companies are putting something back into the community from their profits by sponsoring sport & promoting a healthy lifestyle. Alcohol sponsoring these days is usually accompanied by a "Drink responsibly" type tag.

FFS people need to take responsibilty for their own actions. The bloke that gets ****ed, beats up the Missus & drives over the limit doesnt do it cause Jim Beam sponsor Dick, no he does it cause he's a dick !

Are we turning into a "PC" Nazi country ?

[Green Hornet]

It its legal why can't you advertise it?

If they are really serious they should ban the products if they ban or restrict advertising - but that will never happen whilst governments make big dollars out it.

Perhaps the manufacturers should simply give the government part of the advertising budget?

[Axeman444]

Won't ban the product as they get a massive amount of revenue, so they just allow the product to be sold.

i'm with Muznik...

[NewsStalker]

Muznik - IIRC NSW is the only state where the government is actually involved in lotteries - in all other states it is run by private companies (private as in non-government owned or run).

Green Hornet - just because it is legal doesn't mean a government can't legislate to stop it from being advertised - the same argument can (and has been) be used about tobacco advertising. Tobacco isn't illegal therefore why can't it be advertised and promoted?

A question that can be asked of any non-smokers (particularly Muznik and Green Hornet) - Muznik says he is a non-smoker - so you would have no objection to going into a restaurant and sitting beside a heavy smolker whilst he/she puffs away? Or in a cinema or on public transport?

I will presume you are going to say 'No - you don't wnat to site next to a smoker' and then ask 'Why not?' It's legal to buy and use, there are 'draconian' laws ini place to stop smoking in these places. Why shouldn't they be free to light up wherever they want?

And extend this further - the obvious reply is because of 'passive smoking' and its effects.

Well the same applies to alcohol - lets call it passive drinking. How often is the person that comes out worse of a drunk drivers actions someone completely unrelated to the person who was drunk.

Yep - I guess we should drop all these restrictive laws and just allow anyone and everyone to smoke where they please, drink whatever they want and to hell with the consequences.

[cptkablamo]

This one is an interesting one...

It seems a little hypocritical to, on one hand, disallow alcohol advertising but to then allow its sale at the events, where binge drinking is a problem.

But it also seems a little, anti-democratic to ban the advertising of these products but I fear that is the way we are going.

It seems obvious to me that 'they' want to place a stigma on alcohol and make it that most companies won't want to have their products associated with that. We know binge drinking is bad, but unlike tobacco, drinking in moderation can be good for the health, so how does one argue to ban its advertising, particularly when only adults who, ideally have the capacity to make an informed decision can buy the product?

But then, who will it really affect? Things like NRL, AFL, Cricket and V8s will be fine, they are big enough and popular enough to survive. They coped with the tobacco ban and will do so again here. Its the little guys who will get screwed like they did with the tobacco ban...

I agree, the 'passive drinking' is where the problem lies here - but I doubt this will be the answer to that, the problem is deeper than a simple brand choice for problem drinkers and those who drink and drive (IMO, AFAIK). It seems like a bandaid solution - covering up the obvious but not actually tackelling the problem. People don't see a XXXX or Jack Daniels and go out to become a problem drinker or hit 6 people walking on the side of the road because they are drunk behind the wheel. There are more systemic problems for that which need to be tackled (and not terrible ads like I said 'no' so now the world is my oyster kinda stuff). If they can prove that this is part of a bigger solution to binge drinking and DD problems, then I might be on board...

It seems K.Rudd is on another of his 'lets save the world' missions...most seem to fizzle out, so it will be interesting to see what happens here...

edit NewsStalker got in ahead of me so I wanted to type more...and apologies for a terribly worded post...

[db120176]

Originally Posted by NewsStalker

And extend this further - the obvious reply is because of 'passive smoking' and its effects.

Whilst I find smoking an obnoxious habit (as I am a non-smoker), I have gradually moved away from the passive smoking arguement. Shut your eyes and think of all the people you know who have died from passive-smoking related ailments.

Can't think of anyone, can you?

Now think about people you know who have died from an alchohol-related accident (car or other mis-adventure). You can probably think of a few more

[Uncle Cranker]

Here is a slightly different angle.

We keep hearing from health 'experts' that Obesity (especially childhood obesity) is the greatest potential killer in our community.

Will that mean, (as sort of mentioned above) that for instance, the official burger of V8 Supercars will in future be mandated by the Rudderment to be tofu, instead of deep fried chicken ?
Or the official snack food be changed from a Snickers bar to a stick of celery?

It's bad enough living in the Nanny State (Victoria) where the State Government have imposed all sorts of extra rules and regulations.

To see this political correctness, imposed Nationally is probably an evolution we should have seen coming.

Anyhow I've just worked up a hard earned thirst with all that typing, so while it's still legal, I'm off for a beer. (It's almost 12:00).....


.

[Peter Nightingale]

It's bad enough living in the Nanny State (Victoria) where the State Government have imposed all sorts of extra rules and regulations.

To see this political correctness, imposed Nationally is probably an evolution we should have seen coming.

How quickly can we bring about this very neccesary change, for all our good.....

[Muznik]

Newstalker, talk about overeaction !
So your point is you want tobacco & alcohol to be illegal ?

Firstly in QLD Joh set it so that Lottery $$$ went back into Health & Education. Im not positive it all goes that way but am pretty sure a % still does.

With regards to the smoking question I'll answer it cause you asked- Yes you picked pretty much the one time I do object to someone smoking in close proximity (whilst eating) I had no problems having a few beers in a pub with smokers. (My wife smokes btw)

But I fail to see the relevance of the question as using your illogical reasoning, cars are legal but funnily enough I'd have a huge problem if some hoon came screeching thru the restaurant whilst I was trying to eat too

We were talking sponsorship. Both alcohol & smoking are legal products with fairly heavy restrictions on their use & sale. Whilst they are legal i cannot see why they should not be allowed to sponsor a sporting activity and give something back to the community. I am not, as you implied, suggesting an open slather on their abuse.

On the other side of the coin, how many sports or other activities have you seen sponsored by Heroin, Ice or Ecstacy ? Just because they dont promote it doesnt stop people from using it.

As my initial post suggested just because Tooheys/ Winfield sponsor a sport I watch doesnt mean I will automatically use the product. Dont treat people like sheep.

[NewsStalker]

Shut your eyes and think of all the people you know who have died from passive-smoking related ailments.

Not died - but I know plenty of people who have had smoking related symptoms despite being non-smokers themselves all their lives.

Now think about people you know who have died from an alchohol-related accident (car or other mis-adventure). You can probably think of a few more

Now you're playing with fire! I could name quite a lot of people actually - next door neighbours kid for one - hit my a drunk driver whilst on his pushbike on the footpath. Has never been able to walk properly since and won't be able to.

I suggest you get out in the world a bit more.

Muznik - re-read the first para of my post:

Putting the 'serious cap' on for a minute, hasn't it ever seemed strange that a sport that has a zero tolerance to alcohol in drivers and officials (supposedly, unless you are a senior marshal!), seems to go out of its way to encourage alcohol companies to spend their advertising revenue within the sport?

And I will stand by that statement - alcohol and motor sport are two products that should NOT be mixed no matter how you look at it.