France's Évin Law on the control of alcohol advertising: content, effectiveness and limitations

Abstract

Aims To assess the effectiveness of the 2015 version of the French Évin Law that was implemented in 1991 with the objective of protecting young people from alcohol advertising. Design Data were obtained from survey questions measuring exposure and receptivity to alcohol advertisements that were introduced for the first time in the 2015 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD). Participants and setting A representative sample of 6642 10th-12th grade students (mean age 17.3 years) were interviewed in 198 schools in France by a self-administered questionnaire. Measurements Information was collected on alcohol advertising exposure in different media (outside billboards, internet, etc.) and receptivity to recent advertisements (attractiveness, incentive to drink, etc.). Findings The majority of students declared that they had been exposed at least once a month to alcohol advertisements in supermarkets (73.2%), in movies (66.1%), magazines and newspapers (59.1%), on billboards in streets (54.5%), and on the internet (54.1%). Concerning the last recalled advertisements, 27.8% remembered the beverage type, 18.2% the brand, 13% felt like having a drink after having seen the advertisement and 19.6% found the advertisement attractive (boys ranked significantly higher than girls for all these indicators; P-value < 0.05). Conclusion The 2015 version of the French Évin law does not appear to protect young people effectively from exposure to alcohol advertising in France.

Alcohol marketing regulation: from research to public policy

“…The issue of self‐regulatory codes is an important component of the discussion on alcohol marketing control in this Supplement. Several papers by Jonathan Noel and colleagues evaluate the legal history and current research on industry self‐regulation of alcohol marketing. A systematic review of the literature demonstrates that the industry codes are largely ineffective in reducing youth exposure to potentially harmful sales promotions.…”

“…An evaluation of the French Loi Évin described by Galopel and colleagues provides insight into marketing controls considered to be more effective than industry self‐regulation. It suggests that while laws strictly limiting the promotion of alcohol products may have been successful in preventing certain kinds of potentially harmful marketing, legislative inaction and industry weakening of the 1991 legislation may have reduced its effectiveness.…”

“…Despite the promise of public health measures to limit exposure to alcohol marketing, several papers suggest the difficulties of implementing effective policies because of the opposition of the alcohol industry which, in itself, could constitute an important agenda for future research that will be needed to guide policy .…”

Commentary on de Bruijnet al.(2016): Effective alcohol marketing policymaking requires more than evidence on alcohol marketing effects-research on vested interest effects is needed

“…For example, France's Evin Law, originally a model of good alcohol marketing policy, has been compromised over time and may no longer be effective. As noted by Gallopel-Morvan and colleagues [9], in 1994 Evin Law's restrictions on billboard alcohol advertising were weakened; in 2009 restrictions on online alcohol advertising were removed and from 2016, at the behest of alcohol producers and retailers, alcohol products from famous alcohol-producing regions in France and/or of cultural significance are no longer subject to the Evin Law. Similarly, despite Australian research showing more than 70% public support for stricter alcohol advertising regulations [15], and evidence of extensive exposure of children to alcohol advertising at peak TV viewing times [16,17], the Australian government recently weakened alcohol advertising regulations, further exposing children [10].…”

“…Although the evidence on the link between exposure to alcohol advertising and sponsorship and problematic drinking is clear, this evidence is not resulting in the development of more effective alcohol marketing policy [7,8], with several governments weakening alcohol marketing policy [9][10][11]. Coordinated efforts by an array of vested interests (e.g.…”