Malaysian consumer association calls for end to youth exposure to alcohol advertising

The Consumers’ Association of Penang, Malaysia has called on the Malaysian government to put an immediate stop to the promotion of alcohol to youth by means of alcohol industry sponsorship of educational programmes or sports developments.

In a public statement, S.M Mohammad Idris, President of the Consumers’ Association called on the Malaysian government to act promptly to prohibit alcohol companies from continuing their current activities in schools and elsewhere designed to promote brand names and increase awareness of alcohol products in children and adolescents. Mr Idris picked out Carlsberg Malaysia for particular criticism. His statement reads:

“Children and young people are exposed to alcohol advertising as alcoholic beverage companies are able to successfully morph or ‘hide’ these messages as education promotion or sports development.

The sad truth is alcohol companies are being given prime access in influencing the attitudes of school children towards the habit of drinking. By establishing familiarity through sight and sound, the companies get children and adolescents to accept the brand name in a positive manner, and by extension the consumption of their products.

Examples of how alcohol companies reign unbridled, with the tacit approval of the authorities, to intrude into schools and affect the minds of our kids are clearly evident in the strategies adopted by Carlsberg Malaysia and Guinness Anchor Bhd (GAB).

A browse of the Carlsberg Malaysia website revealed photos of smiling young kids holding Carlsberg-green bag of goodies, emblazoned with the brand name, during a fun outing for Tamil school children sponsored by the company last December. The message of drinking as acceptable is getting embedded into the thinking of the young people with this kind of promotions.

Carlsberg Malaysia is also making its foray into education through arrangements like the one forged recently with a mainstream English media. It was stated that Carlsberg Malaysia ‘is sponsoring a local daily for 40 Tamil primary schools in the northern region’ to improve the standard of English in these schools.

The claims by alcohol companies that they help to raise the standard of living of the Indians is questionable when in reality they destroy families by nurturing future drinkers. Their assertion that they ‘do not encourage consumption of alcohol beverages by minors’ is a blatant lie.

The other major brewery, Guinness Anchor Berhad (GAB), continues unhindered to partner with the Tamil Schools in Malaysia, on the pretext of promoting learning while actually promoting the brand name to minors.

Through the GAB Foundation SMILES (Supporting Malaysian Indian Learning, Education and Sports) Programme, the brewery ‘sells’ its brand by offering free English Language remedial lessons and establishing reading corners in the Tamil schools. This English Enrichment Programme targets hundreds of school children each year, with plans to cover all the different age groups in primary schools in future phases.

Young kids, particularly from early to late teens, are ideal targets as they constitute the future market of drinkers. No matter how insistent the companies are to deny the corelation between advertising and higher consumption of alcohol, their advertising does encourage drinking. We need to put a stop to the myth perpetuated by companies that advertising only causes people to switch brands.

Moreover, the advertising of certain brands by alcohol producers are specifically targeted towards the young from a particular ethnicity. Alcohol dependency develops most often among people when they are in their 20s.

The Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) therefore calls upon the Education Ministry to act as a responsible guardian of the school children, and keep them away from the influence of alcohol companies in the schools. When children see the alcohol companies being recognised, commended and socially accepted among educators and the government, they start to think that alcohol cannot be so bad after all. This allows alcohol companies to wield their powerful, albeit subtle, influence and increase the consumption and sales of alcoholic beverages by recruiting new drinkers.

CAP also calls on the government and the sporting bodies in the country to assess whether the current trend of alcohol sports sponsorship violates the WHO Charter of Alcohol which states that ‘all children and adolescents have the right to grow up in an environment protected from the negative consequences of alcohol consumption and, to the extent possible, from the promotion of alcoholic beverages’.

There is already worldwide concern over the harm caused by alcohol. More than two million people around the world die each year from alcohol-related causes. The harmful use of alcohol is a leading risk factor for premature deaths and disabilities globally.

The Road Safety Council estimates that 30 per cent of road accidents nationwide are caused by drinking and driving. Alcohol consumption impairs judgement and is a trigger for aggressive and violent behaviour, leading to domestic violence, child abuse, fights and other crimes.

Scientific research and health agencies can demonstrate that alcohol advertising does increase alcohol consumption Drinking also costs the nation due to absenteeism from work, diminished job skills, and loss of productivity of the affected workers.

CAP calls on the Government to strictly prohibit alcohol companies from sponsoring any projects or programmes in schools, or being involved in schools in any other way. The Government should also hike up the excise duties on alcohol products and monitor the industry closely for violation of the laws, and use the taxes and fines collected from the industry to fund education and other community-related activities.”

S.M. MOHAMED IDRIS President Consumers Association of Penang (CAP) No. 10 Jalan Masjid Negeri 11600 Penang Tel: 04 8299511; Fax: 04 8298109