Does TV encourage teenage drinking?

Television soap operas ‘normalise’ alcohol consumption, de-sensitising viewers to its adverse effects and so may help to promote teenage drinking.

These are the conclusions of a survey for The Food Magazine investigating the portrayal of alcohol in television soap operas. The survey discovered that alcohol, shown in background scenes or being consumed by characters, accounts for considerable screen time in many popular soaps. During the two week survey period, Hollyoaks was the leader in total alcohol related references with these accounting for around 18% of screen time. According to its website, Hollyoaks is the UK’s most watched teenage drama serial; it goes out Monday to Friday at 6.30pm, right after the Simpsons.

All of the soaps surveyed go out before the 9pm watershed and have millions of viewers for each programme segment, including many children and young people. However, alcohol still plays a prominent role in these dramas.

During the survey period, the alcohol scenes in Hollyoaks were largely centred on the lives of three friends. One owned and managed a bar-restaurant while the others assisted him. The three were young twenty somethings, single, carefree and enjoying life to the full. Each looked a picture of health, of average weight and physically fit.

The characters used alcohol to help them enjoy dates and to celebrate special occasions. Even when characters were not explicitly drinking, alcohol appeared in the background – on shelves at the bar, on other tables in restaurants.

Similarly, other programmes showed characters that were exemplars of health, yet storylines showed an obvious mismatch with their unhealthy drinking habits. In Home and Away, the chief offender was a gym instructor. As might be imagined, he was fit, healthy and sporty, yet 50% of his scenes saw him drinking beer or wine. The survey showed that alcohol was the most frequent food group in background scenes, for example, 69% of all food occasions in Coronation Street involved alcohol. The chart shows how alcohol dominates the food groups appearing in background scenes of Hollyoaks.

The Food Magazine survey results are consistent with other studies. One surveyed soap opera content over several weeks and found, on average, seven drinking scenes per hour, with alcohol used primarily for celebrations and as an aid to romance. The study found no explicit portrayal of alcoholism and a tendency to portray potential problem drinkers in a humourous, or lighthearted way.

Cally Matthews, a public health nutritionist and the author of the Food Magazine report, says that the problem with over-saturation of images, particularly alcohol, is that it dulls the senses to the point in question – it becomes the ‘norm’. “Suddenl y a daily lunchtime and after work visit to the pub is normal.Two to three glasses of wine each night is normal. We become desensitised to the shock of the image.”

Matthews says that evidence is accumulating about harm to young people from this ‘naturalisation’. A recent study in the British Medical Journal focused on young people in the Netherlands and found that soaps were linked with alcohol abuse in young people.

The Food Magazine contacted the BBC, Channels Four and Five and ITV and received official statements confirming that they follow the Ofcom Broadcasting Code, with, for example, Channel 5 asserting, “Representation of alcohol use and/or abuse in Five programming is governed by the guidelines laid down by the Ofcom Broadcasting Code. In accordance with these, alcohol is not featured in programmes made primarily for children unless there is strong editorial justification. In other programmes broadcast before the watershed which are likely to be viewed widely by under eighteens, alcohol abuse is generally avoided, and in any case not condoned, encouraged or glamourised unless there is editorial justification.”

As the soaps surveyed all have bars or clubs or pubs as significant settings, it is likely that ‘editorial justification’ is going to allow many scenes with alcohol. The questions of glamourisation and encouragement are perhaps more open to interpretation. The regulator, Ofcom, is charged with enforcing its Code, but day to day programme content is more likely to be monitored, and complained about, by members of the public who object to certain scenes.

Cally Matthews argues that while the nation’s soaps continue the process of normalisation of alcohol under the watchful gaze of the regulator, campaigners have focused their attention on efforts to get a pre-9pm watershed ban on alcohol advertising on television.

The drinks industry spends around £800 million a year promoting its products, against a spend last year by the government of not quite £4 million on safe drinking campaigns. Campaigners want to make sure young people are protected as much as possible from the power of that spend and believe a total pre-9pm ban is the best way to do this.

A recent study, published in the Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine, found that young people aged 15-26 who watched more alcohol adverts tended to drink more too. Nearly 2000 young people were interviewed for the study, which took place in the United States.

Scheduling restrictions on TV advertisements are almost all based on the Broadcasters Audience Research Board audience index. Programmes attract alcohol advertising restrictions if the proportion of under 18s in the audience is greater than the proportion of under 18s in the population at large.

This still leaves some programmes with many young viewers but not of a high enough percentage to enact a ban; it also means that programmes with very high overall viewing figures need large child audiences to enact a ban. For example, alcohol adverts are allowed during Home and Away – a programme full of young characters that goes out on weekdays at noon and 6pm and which has a viewing audience comprised of around 8% under 16 year olds.

The complexities of the current system mean that it is not that easy to find out if advertising is allowed during specific programmes. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) was unable to tell The Food Magazine whether alcohol adverts were allowed during Emmerdale,Coronation Street, Hollyoaks and Home and Away, despite its role as a so-called one-stop-shop for consumers concerned about advertisements. They advised asking the Broadcast Advertising Clearance Centre (BACC), a specialist body responsible for the pre-transmission examination and clearance of television advertisements.

However, BACC said, “Our role is to advise broadcasters of the character of the commercial, and in this case, we will inform the broadcaster whether it is a commercial for alcohol. It is up to the broadcaster to apply the scheduling restrictions which apply, and they are therefore better placed to reply to your question, whether the four programmes have a higher share of young among their viewership.”

The Food Magazine checked back with the ASA which responded that they work on a complaints basis; if the Food Magazine had a complaint about a specific alcohol advert they would then investigate and the broadcasters would have to release audience information to them.

Cally Matthews argues that this type of system calls into question the degree of regulation and is not particularly useful to a parent who might not want to sit and watch a programme, but who would prefer to find out if adverts for alcohol were likely to occur during programmes their children would be watching. The Food Magazine tried to get in touch with, for example, Channel 4 and were told that it could take up to three weeks for an answer.

According to Jane Landon, Deputy Chief Executive of the National Heart Forum, “A pre- 9pm watershed ban is logical, it is easy for people to monitor at home, as all they need to do is look at their watch to see if an advert is on when it shouldn’t be. A watershed also offers a higher protection to all children and young people, as we know many young people watch all kinds of programmes which attract a mixed audience. At the moment the viewer at home is left to decide whether to make a complaint,which is then investigated by the Advertising Standards Authority. Even if at a later date the ASA rules against a broadcaster, the consequence is usually the regulatory equivalent of a slap on the wrist.”

Issue 76 of The Food Magazine
published Saturday 10th March 2007