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Children’s exposure to alcohol advertising plummets, ASA reports
Between 2010 and 2023, British children’s exposure to alcohol advertising on television decreased by four fifths, according to the latest report from the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
The reports notes that whereas children would have seen an average of 3.2 adverts for alcoholic drinks on UK TV per week in 2010, 13 years later it was just 0.7 – the lowest on record. The decline was broadly consistent across the various constituent countries of the UK.
This is an international phenomenon, with children’s exposure to alcohol TV ads dropping by at least two-thirds in every nation in the last decade. Indeed, according to the ASA data, children in 2023 saw, on average, one advert for an alcoholic drink for every six seen by adults (a percentage 16.4%) – whereas in 2010 it wasn’t far off a child seeing one drinks ad for every two seen by an adult (39.9%).
As of 2023, adverts for alcoholic drinks made up 1.2% of all the TV commercials seen by children in the UK – this actually marks an increase on 2022’s level of 1.1%, and in fact that percentage has been rising since the 2016/17 low-point of 0.6%.
It should be noted that the number of TV ads overall, regardless of what product they are promoting, seen by children has also sharply declined – going from an average of 229.3 per week from the peak in 2013 to just 58.2 as of last year. This can be seen as a direct result of younger generations shunning traditional media in favour of online viewing.
The majority of the alcohol ads seen by children in 2023 were for beer, cider, or perry, as has been the case throughout the last decade or so. According to the report, whereas a child might see 1.7 ads for beer, cider, or perry in 2011 (compared to 0.9 for spirits and 0.2 for wine), that figure has notably declined – since 2020, the figure for exposure to adverts for the beer, cider and perry category has sat at 0.3 (as of 2023, it was 0.2 for spirits and 0.1 for wine).
The UK Code of Broadcast Advertising (BCAP Code) has strict rules when it comes to how drinks brands can promote their products, with it prohibited to promote alcohol drinks of 1.2% ABV or more to those below the age of 18, and drinks of any alcohol level to those under 16.