Getting round the marketing codes of conduct
Alicia Rodriguez-Martos

If we are to believe statements made by the industry and the examples of good will it provides, there should be no need for concern about self-regulation, especially if the controls it has in place both before and after the launch of any marketing campaign are taken into account.

However, daily reality shows that the code of conduct is frequently broken. In addition, too often any complaints are not upheld. As an example, we can quote last spring’s campaigns by Ballantines,’GO PLAY and GO SNOW, in Spain. Both are whisky promotional tools and both use amusing puppets which have considerable appeal to children and are likely to catch the underage eye.

The GO PLAY campaign, showing the puppets having fun in different ways, showed the whisky bottle and the warning message of Drink moderately; it’s your responsibility. In the case of the GO SNOW, the name Ballantine’s was associated with dangerous activities, such as snowboarding and the risky jumping “half-pipe”. The GO SNOW advertisements did not show any bottle or warning message, because they allegedly promote just a snowboard championship, legally sponsored by the industry. The puppets design and the name Ballantine’s are, anyway, unmistakable. Both campaigns were widely featured on bus-shelters and billboards and were clearly recognisable as whisky advertisements.

SOCIDROGALCOHOL, the Spanish organisation concerned with alcohol and other drug problems, complained on three grounds: the content of the messages which associated alcohol and sport and alcohol with playing in general (alcohol was clearly intended to embody the idea of “play”); the attractiveness of the advertisements to minors; and their placement in places frequented by school-children. The complaint drew attention to the fact that these advertisements broke the articles of the industry’s codes of conduct relating to the association of alcohol with sports and success, and to the industry’s own recommendation that designs and styles mainly associated underage activities and capable of appealing to underage people should not be used.

The regulatory body disallowed both claims on the grounds that, on the one hand, Ballantines’ sponsorship was perfectly legal and that, on the other, the target audience was adult in both cases.

In fact, the youngest participants in the snowboarding championships were eighteen years old. The question is whether this precludes children under that age being attracted by the advertisements.

According to the regulatory body, AUTOCONTROL’s, rules, the jury’s resolution cannot be published other than in its entirety. Therefore, I am unable to quote selected sentences, but the resolutions are available at this association’s web-site and we have them at the disposal for anybody who might be interested. It is, however, true that an image is worth more than a thousand words. Readers can look at those pictures and draw their own conclusions.

Meanwhile, industry gives us more and more examples of its good intentions and its effective code of conduct. Street and magazines advertisements and television spots are repeatedly aimed at young people, constantly using the message of sexual and social success as a positive gain from drinking alcohol.

What is the point of presenting complaints, becoming involved in long, legal procedures, only to have the evidence denied?

Counter-publicity seems a much more direct strategy, at least as a means of opening people’s eyes. It might also prove to be more effective in having unethical advertisements removed than formal claims. In Barcelona, the Public Health Agency has produced a series of “free-postcards” alluding to some of the best known advertisements of the summer campaign as part of a prevention community programme of health and leisure, sponsored by the National Plan on Drugs. Again images speak for themselves.

Meanwhile, in June of this year, the brewers of Spain approved a new code of conduct, which, taking into account the principles defined by the Recommendation of June 5th 2001, aims to prevent alcoholic products and their promotion being designed to attract underage drinkers. A special section is devoted to beer and minors, where, in addition to the existing legal limitations, a commitment is made to avoid any type of marketing portraying or aimed at minors. The commitments includes non-alcoholic beers. As far as social responsibility is concerned, a series of limitations should preclude non-ethical practices such as conveying the message that drinking alcohol is a requirement of a successful social life, or that beer can contribute to sexual success or make the drinker more sexually attractive or help overcome shyness. It is further stated that commercial communications cannot be aimed, by any means, at people under eighteen years of age.

Yet every time a young person sees a beer advertisement on television the implication is that all fun, all interaction with the opposite sex, every party or social occasion, is incomplete without a beer.

Young people, experiencing independent leisure time for the first time, pay attention to the messages conveyed by these advertisements on television. The message is: you can not have fun or be sexually interesting if you don’t drink.

Will anything change when the new code of conduct comes into force?

We would like to see responsible marketing work. It would be far more preferable to celebrate their ethical behaviour in selling and advertising a legal commodity, than being daily confronted with questionable marketing ploys which forces us to react.

Alicia Rodriguez-Martos
SOCIDROGALCOHOL (Spain)