Firms that make alcoholic drinks should voluntarily put responsible drinking messages on their products and in their adverts, an influential UK industry group has said.
The Portman Group, whose members include Bacardi-Martini, Bulmers, Coors, Diageo, Interbrew and Scottish & Newcastle, has taken the position in its response to a UK government consultation paper on a national strategy to reduce ‘alcohol harm’.
In the response the group recommends that ‘consideration be given, across the whole industry, to the promotion of responsibility messages via consumer-focused marketing activities such as brand advertising’.
The Portman Group said a lead was already being taken by one former member, Allied Domecq, which has been placing responsible drinking messages on its Ballantines whisky and Tia Lusso liqueur products (EP4, issue 4). ‘We hope that our members will see Allied Domecq’s example and that they will be following suit shortly,’ it said.
The group says drinks producers should ‘routinely’ label all products to show how many units of alcohol they contain. It argues this would be ‘an important contribution to providing consumers with the information they need to make responsible choices about drinking’.
But it says a bigger impact could be made through brand advertising and marketing, on which the industry spends £250million ($403m) a year. ‘A fraction of that could make a big difference to the reach of responsibility messages,’ the group says.
It also argues that the industry should ‘exercise greater self-restraint in television advertising’, caution in product placement, provide training on sensible drinking levels for those who serve alcohol, and support stronger measures to deter sales of alcohol to under-age drinkers.
It says that while the government needs to act on issues such as binge drinking, ‘the industry can and should play a key role in helping to reduce the harm associated with alcohol misuse by demonstrating a commitment to corporate social responsibility’. This means more self-regulation.
The Portman Group was set up in 1989 by the UK’s leading alcohol producers to promote sensible drinking and to help prevent alcohol misuse. Its members supply around 95 per cent of the alcohol on the UK market.
This month, a revised version of its code on the naming, packaging and promotion of alcoholic drinks comes into effect.
The code, which is supported by more than 120 companies, does not specifically require manufacturers to put responsible drinking messages on products, but says packaging should not promote the intoxicating effect of alcohol as a dominant theme, should not suggest any association between drinking and bravado or popularity, and must not have a particular appeal to under-age drinkers.
Diageo became the first drinks firm to sign the UN Global Compact principles last October.