New national research explores current public perceptions of alcohol marketing reveals ABAC Responsible Alcohol Marketing Code (‘Code’) alignment with community expectations

JWS Research has expanded on prior research undertaken in 2013, 2017 and 2021, surveying 1500 people nationally to explore current public perceptions of alcohol marketing, complaint avenues, perception of emerging alcohol terms and whether decisions made by the ABAC Complaints Panel (‘Panel’) align with the understanding of the ‘reasonable person’.

The Report found “The ABAC Code and content standards remain an accurate reflection of Australians’ views regarding standards for alcohol promotion. There are no salient issues regarding alcohol advertising, packaging or labelling that are not already covered by the Code. As such, the Code remains fit-for-purpose. Assessment of advertising and packaging shows that for the examples tested, Adjudication Panel decisions are mostly in alignment with or more conservative than current social norms.”

Key highlights:

• Declining Public Concern: The research found that alcohol marketing is the lowest ranked concern of 14 tested societal issues (including cost of living and online bullying), with only 12% of Australians surveyed viewing it as a significant concern, a notable drop from 16% in 2021.  In addition, when prompted, most respondents (64%), up from 60% in 2021, said they have had no concerns about alcohol advertising, labelling or packaging over the last 12 months and only 25% of Australians expressed any concern about alcohol advertising or labelling, a decrease from 29% in 2021, with only 7%, very concerned.
• High Support for Current Protections: Significant emerging issues not already addressed by the Code were not raised; and strong community support for current ABAC placement guidelines, such as banning alcohol ads during programs primarily aimed at under 18 year olds with majority support for new alcohol alternative standards that prevent the promotion of non-alcoholic beer, wine and spirits products towards under 18 year olds. These findings support the Code continuing to be fit for purpose.
• Conservative Oversight: Of the fourteen advertisements/packaging tested, complaints about eight had been upheld by the Panel and six had been dismissed. However, only two of the fourteen advertisements were considered unacceptable by the majority of community respondents and two borderline prior to being exposed to the Code standards.  When testing whether Code standards had been applied by the Panel consistently with how they would have been applied by a majority within the community, Panel decisions are mostly in alignment with or more conservative than the community.
• Alcohol Packaging & Excessive Consumption Watchouts: The highest levels of unprompted offense related to three packaging examples tested, through implications of sexual success, an AK-47 shaped bottle and iceblock packaging. While a social media video using humour to imply excessive consumption attracted the highest proportion of respondents indicating the marketing breached the Code standard preventing a direct implication of excessive consumption.

“ABAC is committed to maintaining the high standards set by the Code for alcohol marketing in Australia.  ABAC protects society and provides a level playing field for responsible businesses through responding to community complaints and encouraging proactive compliance through pre-vetting and extensive freely available education resources,” says Chair of The ABAC Scheme, Hon Tony Smith.

“The insights will provide valuable guidance for ABAC decision makers and the ABAC management committee will utilise the insights to guide regulatory priorities and ensure ABAC and the Code remain fit for purpose in an evolving marketing landscape.”

Access the Executive Summary and the Full Report here.

For more information about the ABAC Code, visit abac.org.au.