Alcohol brands on Facebook: the challenges of regulating brands on social media

Abstract

Background: Health campaigns have struggled to gain traction with young adults

The commercial use of digital media to market alcohol products: a narrative review

“…Proposals included regulatory restrictions on access to websites, website content and requirements to report website usage, supplemented with stronger industry codes and tougher sanctions [20,25,[30][31][32][33][34][35]. To date, it appears that policy responses have been weak.…”

“…The transgressions depend upon the code in place in a given region or country: the paper by Brodmerkel & Carah [25] provides evidence that alcohol brands available in Australia own Facebook pages which encourage viewers to interact with the page and to make statements that the company itself cannot make under the prevailing Australian code of marketing. The pages also display users' photos that encourage excessive consumption and indicate sexual advantages through alcohol consumption (both prohibited under the Australian code).…”

Using social marketing to create communities for our children and adolescents that do not model and encourage drinking

“…Community interventions, and social marketing campaigns, encouraging responsible drinking are delivered in a pro-alcohol, advertising-saturated media environment that reinforces the belief that alcohol is harmless, socially normative and essential to having a good time. Given the substantial body of evidence that current (quasi) regulatory systems are ineffective in regulating even mainstream advertising (Fortin and Rempel, 2007;Hastings et al, 2010;Jones et al, 2008), and that newer forms of alcohol marketing are even more complex to measure (Jernigan and Rushman, 2014) and to regulate (Brodmerkel and Carah, 2013), there is a need for social marketers to advocate for the introduction of effective advertising regulation by an independent body which includes monitoring and penalties for non-compliance (Heung et al, 2012;Jones and Gordon, 2013).…”

Foie gras: animal cruelty or tasty delicacy? An exploration of firm responses to restrictive regulatory change

“…The model is based on theories of sensemaking (Weick, ), cognitive appraisal (Lazarus, ), and the affect infusion (Forgas, ). We specifically investigate the context of foie gras bans, but our findings apply to a large number of outside restrictions imposed on firms, for example, a ban on the use of social media for alcohol advertisements (Brodmerkel & Carah, ), or country of origin bans or boycotts as the result of geopolitical tension (e.g., Newnham, ).…”