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The digital world is bringing new, more powerful marketing methods. Jem Roberts from the Institute of Alcohol Studies discusses how they can lead to alcohol harms and the potential for tackling these harms, as explored in the UK NGO’s new video explainer “Digital Intoxication”. ■
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One of the speakers, Antonia Lions, in
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our in our film talks about is this like
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multiple layer of addiction that you’ve
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got this this device that’s been um
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designed to be habitually um used
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habitually addicted essentially the the
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smartphone and then inside that you’ve
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got platforms like maybe I shouldn’t
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name them but social media platforms
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that have again designed and like courts
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have now proven this that they’ve been
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designed to be addictive and then within
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that you’ve got that third layer of
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addiction which is harmful commodities
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and That’s the the point of our film was
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to try and highlight one of those
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harmful um commodities, alcohol. So,
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there’s so many benefits that could be
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taken from social media. Um but at the
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moment, it’s pretty clear that the
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negatives almost certainly outweigh the
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positives and probably the positives are
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juggling slightly outweigh the
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negatives, whatever those might be.
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Heineken created this entire brewery
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that you can walk into um in this sort
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of metaverse game thing. Um, you can
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walk into this Heineken brewery and see
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all of this Heineken advertising
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everywhere. And the issue with those
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quite obviously is that people that use
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metaverses, people that use online
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gaming really skew towards younger
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people. This it is alcohol marketing.
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It’s The Rock talking about his tequila
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brand. Um, and and obviously it like
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looks very beautiful because it’s filmed
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incredibly well and it’s got a lot of
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budget behind it. It’s got a person that
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lots of people respect and and is funny
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and very likable. Um, but they don’t
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have to say that they’re adverts because
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it’s their own brand. It’s such a neat
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way of like giving legit legitimacy and
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like credibility to that brand. Um,
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because it’s so integrated within like
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that person’s persona, they can now pop
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up with an advert to you saying, “Order
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this drink that they think you might
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like.” with the click of a button, it
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will come to your door within within an
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hour. Um, so that that’s there something
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that Nick Cara talks about in the film.
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Um, about this seamless link between the
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marketing of alcohol through to the sale
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and the delivery of it. And yeah, like I
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said, we’re seeing really worrying
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stories. There have been loads of
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stories recently, really heartbreaking
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stories in UK media about people um
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dying from from dying and then
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afterwards their family members um
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finding out that they’d ordered
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thousands of pounds worth of alcohol
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like delivered directly to their door.
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But one thing that doesn’t apply to
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online delivery of alcohol is serving to
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somebody who’s intoxicated. So, so
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people who are yeah, incredibly
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intoxicated, drinking really harmful
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amounts could just have bottles of vodka
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handed over to them at the door. If
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people stop gambling or they stop
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ordering alcohol from these these these
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apps, they sort of get bomb they they
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talk about it. They they get bombarded
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with alcohol ads, with gambling ads
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saying, “Yeah, do you you can have a
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free spin. You can have Yeah. 50% off
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this box of wine or whatever it is to
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try and bring them back in.” The alcohol
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industry is heavily reliant on the on
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these higher risk drinkers because they
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give them so much money basically. So if
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those people cut back, there’s a big
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risk to their their business models if
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they don’t continue the the the drinking
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levels of high-risisk drinkers. And so
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that’s why they like push this marketing
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out towards them. These are some of the
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most protocol-driven
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platforms that we’ve ever had in human
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history. They’re so much more
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controllable than the billboard outside
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my house. So it’s highly regulable and
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really easy to control. It’s just that
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what’s lacking is partly probably the
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knowledge um of politicians often in
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knowing that that is very very possible
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but also the the desire. really the most
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effective way to protect people to
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protect children and the vulnerable
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groups that we’re talking about from
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being bombarded with all these alcohol
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adverts and risking their lives
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ultimately is very clearly is is to ban
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alcohol marketing across all digital
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platforms.