ASA survey shows advertisers comply with alcohol rules

8 September 2009

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) today publishes the findings of its latest survey of alcoholic drinks advertisements, revealing a compliance rate of 99%.

This is the ASA’s third proactive survey of alcohol ads in as many years. Encouragingly the compliance rate has improved year-on-year. In this survey, 456 alcohol ads were assessed across all media during the Christmas period in 2008. Five breached the Advertising Codes: three in non-broadcast media and two on TV. Significantly, none of the ads breached the specific rules designed to prevent strong or particular appeal of alcohol ads to under 18s.

The number of online ads in the survey almost doubled, suggesting there has been significant growth of alcoholic drinks ads in that medium. Despite that growth, no breaches were recorded against online ads, indicating that where the self-regulatory rules apply, advertisers are adhering to them.

The alcohol advertising rules were significantly tightened by industry in 2005 in response to public concern about underage and irresponsible drinking. Since the introduction of the new rules, the regulatory system has conducted various initiatives to encourage compliance with the new rules. In 2008, CAP and BCAP held fourteen training events for industry on the alcohol rules, and the ASA held a stakeholder conference to gauge the public’s views.

The breaches in the survey concerned ads that:

• suggested or encouraged irresponsible consumption of alcohol;
• linked alcohol with sexual success; 
• suggested alcohol would boost confidence or lead to the success of a social occasion; and
• made a low energy claim about the calorie content of a drink.

Mirroring the survey results from 2007, none of the identified breaches concerned ads for ‘alcopops’ - a category of alcoholic drinks traditionally popular with teenagers.

The ASA Compliance team will continue to monitor alcohol ads across all media to assess the levels of compliance with the Codes.

ASA Chief Executive, Guy Parker said: “The UK has some of the strictest rules covering the content of alcohol ads of any country.  The results of the survey demonstrate the ad industry’s commitment to adhering to those rules.  We will continue to work hard to ensure that alcohol is advertised responsibly.”

Download the Alcoholic Drinks Advertisements Compliance Survey 2008.