In our latest Explained film, Digital Intoxication, we look at how digital alcohol marketing actually works: the algorithms that find people already drinking heavily and target them “disproportionately”, the influencers (including The Rock, Beyonce, and Kendall Jenner) promoting their own alcohol brands to hundreds of millions of followers without ad disclosure, and the rise of alcohol marketing inside e-sports, video games, and even the metaverse.
We speak to leading researchers on the data behind the targeting, the impact on children and teenagers, and why regulation has consistently failed to keep pace with the technology. In this film:
- Why “lookalike” targeting makes algorithmic advertising especially dangerous for addictive products
- How influencer marketing evades alcohol advertising rules entirely
- What the data shows about TikTok, e-sports, and underage exposure
- Why the WHO says this is now a children’s rights issue
- What a tobacco-style regulatory response could look like
The regulatory tide is starting to turn – but not evenly. As governments from Australia to the UK move to restrict or ban children’s access to social media entirely, this film asks a question regulators haven’t yet grappled with: even if platforms are made safer, what happens to the industries – like alcohol – that have built their marketing machines inside them? And in the UK, that same logic now extends beyond marketing to the point of sale itself: Alcohol Change UK research suggests over 12 million UK adults use rapid alcohol delivery apps at least weekly, with use heaviest among those already drinking at harmful levels – fuelling calls for restrictions on round-the-clock, on-demand access.