RESPONSIBLE PROMOTIONS

There has been a great deal of publicity lately about binge drinking and alcohol-related antisocial behaviour. The Government has called for the licensed trade to help stamp out this type of behaviour through responsible drinks retailing schemes, and the police have added their weight by clamping down on drunkenness and antisocial behaviour by members of the public. In response, the British Beer and Pub Association (the leading organisation representing the brewing and pub sector whose members account for 98% of beer brewed in the UK and own more than half of Britain’s pubs) have issued guidelines on how drinks promotions should be run. They have stated that an irresponsible promotion is one that encourages or incites individuals to drink to excess, or behave in an antisocial manner, or that fuels drunkenness. They have identified the kinds of promotions that should not be operated because of the disproportionate risk they will lead directly to alcohol misuse and antisocial behaviour. These are:

• Reward schemes that are only redeemable over short periods, thereby encouraging the purchase and consumption of large quantities of alcohol over a short period of time.
• Drinking games, as these tend to encourage either speed drinking or the drinking of large quantities of alcohol.
• Promotions that involve large quantities of free drinks, eg women drink for free.
• Entry fees that are linked with unlimited amounts of drinks, eg ‘£ x.99 on the door and all your drinks are free’ or ‘All you can drink for £ x.99’.
• Promotions that are an incentive to speed drinking or encouraging people to ‘down their drinks in one’, eg ‘If you finish your first bottle of wine by 9.00 pm, the next one is on us’.

• Promotions linked to unpredictable events, eg ‘Free drinks for 5 minutes after every goal’.
• Promotions that encourage or reward the purchase or drinking of large quantities of alcohol in a single session.
• Promotional material that is linked to sexual imagery implying sexual success or prowess.
• Promotions that encourage either an excessive drinking session or a pub crawl.
• Promotions that involve driving in any way.
• Promotions that refer to consuming alcohol to recover from previous over-indulgence, or glamorise excessive or irresponsible drinking (effects of intoxication should not be referred to in any favourable manner).
• Promotions that are not respectful of contemporary, prevailing standards of taste and decency and are degrading or gratuitously offensive through images, symbols, figures and innuendo.
• Promotional material which is demeaning to any gender, race, religion, age, or minority group.
• Use of images/symbols/characters or persons in promotional material that appeal primarily to those under the legal purchase age: characters should be used only if it is clearly established that their primary appeal is to adults (use of any cartoon character popular with children is unacceptable).
• Direct or indirect references to drug culture or illegal drugs in promotional material.
• Association with violence or antisocial behaviour in promotional material.