The Scottish Government’s consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotions closed on 9 March.

We wrote about the controversial proposals when the consultation launched at the end of last year, and they have attracted a significant level of comment since.

To recap, the consultation sought views on a number of restrictions on alcohol promotion in Scotland, including:

• Events and sports – restriction on alcohol sponsorship of both sporting and non-sporting events, covering a range of marketing activities including branded replica kits, hospitality arrangements and social media content.
• Public places – a ban on alcohol marketing outdoors and in public spaces.
• In-store marketing – further restrictions on in-store alcohol marketing, limiting the visibility of alcohol on retail premises.
• Brand-sharing and merchandise – a prohibition on the sale of alcohol-branded non-alcoholic products, from merchandise like clothing and mugs, to flavours associated with alcohol, like gin and tonic flavoured ice cream or  mojito flavoured alcohol-free drinks.
• Print media – a ban on alcohol advertising in newspapers and magazines.
• Online/social media – restricting alcohol advertising on digital platforms including TV-style adverts on video sharing platforms, pop-up adverts, website banner adverts, influencer or search engine promotions and even adverts on alcohol brands’ own websites.
• TV and radio – extending the current system from a prohibition in alcohol advertising around programming aimed at children, to an advertising watershed or outright prohibition on all alcohol adverts.

Criticism

Industries across Scotland have been fiercely critical of the proposals, which come at a time when many of them are already grappling with the ever-moving target that is the Scottish Deposit Return Scheme.

Notably, the Scottish Retail Consortium has predicted that, if adopted, the proposals could cost the retail industry around £96 million due to the need to refit stores.

A group of trade associations, including the Retail of Alcohol Standards Group, have joined together to form the Scottish Alcohol Industry Partnership. Their letter warns that, if the proposals go ahead, they will cause “significant harm” to Scotland’s businesses and will ultimately push up prices for consumers.

A coalition of more than 100 producers and brands active in Scotland have called for the proposals to be abandoned. They point to the impact the proposals could have on Scotland’s food and drink sector and ‘Brand Scotland’, of which distillers and brewers are an important part. They state that “restricting the ability to promote and market products responsibly will remove a vital route to market and go against the Scottish Government’s vision to double the turnover of the food and drink sector by 2030.”

There are also concerns from the tourism sector around the impact on whisky tourists. The Scottish Tourism Alliance unanimously opposed the proposals.

There has been a similar negative response from the music industry, with Scotland’s biggest live music promoter, DF Concerts & Events, noting that proposals to ban alcohol sponsorship of live events will be “disastrous” for the live music industry. The promoter of music festivals TRSNMT and Glasgow Summer Sessions have said that the proposals would “harm the Scottish economy, harm Scottish artists, harm Scottish businesses, reduce tourism and leave Scotland in a weakened position.”

Support

Conversely, the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh (RCPE) released a press statement backing the proposals. They described the proposed restrictions as “an opportunity to protect children from alcohol marketing and to support people in recovery from alcohol problems.”

Alcohol Focus Scotland has also noted its support of the consultation’s proposal, stating that “research has shown awareness, recall of or exposure to alcohol marketing is associated with increased likelihood of alcohol consumption amongst young people and an increased risk of relapse for those in recovery from alcohol problems”.

Next Steps

The consultation responses will now be collated and considered, and we would expect these to be published in due course. The Scottish Government’s reaction to the responses will be hotly anticipated, and it is difficult to predict where it will go with these proposals if the responses reflect the public commentary so far and it is anticipated that further consultation will be required if restrictions are to be introduced.

The proposals are extremely wide ranging, which suggests that the consultation could have been an attempt to test the water before focusing on a smaller number of key actions. The next steps will also be hugely impacted by the agenda set by Scotland’s new First Minister, once appointed. Watch this space.

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