People want to live in thriving communities, where young people can grow up free from pervasive marketing, and policy decisions prioritise our health and wellbeing.
Our recent Citizens’ Juries on Health and Harmful Products suggest there is strong public support for actions that can help create this future.
The juries brought together 35 residents from Yorkshire and Humber, broadly representative of the region’s population.
Over a series of workshops, jurors explored the impacts of alcohol, unhealthy food and tobacco. They examined evidence, discussed policy options and developed recommendations for decision-makers.
Alcohol harms remain a major public concern
Throughout the process, alcohol consistently emerged as one of the issues jurors were most concerned about.
In an initial survey, 77% of jurors identified the alcohol industry as one of those having the biggest impacts on health and wellbeing in their communities. When we repeated the survey, that figure remained virtually unchanged. And, when asked which of alcohol, tobacco or unhealthy food concerned them most, alcohol ranked first.
Alcohol-related harm remains highly visible in our lives and across our communities.
Protecting communities from pervasive alcohol marketing is a priority
One of the clearest messages from jurors concerned marketing.
Before attending the workshops, participants were asked to capture how alcohol, tobacco and unhealthy food appeared in their daily lives. They returned with photographs of alcohol promotions, price offers, shop displays, billboards, social media advertising and online delivery services.
Jurors repeatedly described a sense of being surrounded by marketing:
Advertising is everywhere, we just get bombarded.
By the end of the juries, 88% of jurors supported measures to restrict alcohol advertising, promotion and sponsorship.
Restricting advertising of alcohol, unhealthy food and vaping products was also one of the few policy proposals to gain support through both individual voting and the collective manifestos produced by jurors.
For many participants, marketing was not simply part of the background. Jurors felt it was actively shaping how we think about alcohol, normalising consumption and influencing young people.
Advertising targets young people to try and hook them for life.
This aligns with the well-established evidence base on the pervasiveness of alcohol advertising and how it increases consumption, particularly for children and young people.
Support for action is strong, and grew over time
Citizens’ juries do not just measure opinions. They allow us to see how views change when people have time to discuss, question and learn.
The clearest example of this was support for pricing policies. At the start of the process, 52% of jurors supported policies to increase alcohol prices to reduce health and social harms. By the end, support had risen to 82%.
Jurors also debated proposals such as minimum unit pricing, improved alcohol labelling, and reducing availability. While views differed on individual measures, there was clear evidence that engagement with the evidence increased support for action.
This reinforces the findings of a similar citizens’ jury held in Glasgow in 2024. Both suggest a significant gap between public attitudes and the policy response to alcohol harm.
Health policy should prioritise health
The biggest shift in opinion related to the role of industry in policymaking.
At the start of the process, almost three-quarters of jurors agreed that government should work in partnership with the alcohol industry to reduce harms. By the end, support for that position had fallen to 39%.
At the same time, support for protecting health policy from alcohol industry influence increased from 78% to 87%, with no jurors disagreeing by the end of the workshops.
Jurors explained their views clearly:
This is our well-being and health that’s involved here. It’s not all about money.
When policy is being made, industry should not be involved in the policy, because they’re too influential.
Jurors concluded that decisions affecting our health should be guided primarily by evidence and local communities, rather than by the interests of companies whose profits depend on alcohol sales.
Sharing the message with policymakers
It is well documented that politicians are sensitive to public opinion, but research suggests their perceptions can be misaligned. Media coverage can also reinforce industry framing and portray the public as resistant to stronger action on alcohol harms.
Our citizens’ juries suggest the opposite is true. When people are people are given balanced evidence, independent facilitation and the time to deliberate together, there is substantial support for measures that protect health and wellbeing.
The juries produced a clear message. Jurors want to see changes in the price and availability of alcohol and strongly support restrictions on marketing. They also want health policy to be protected from undue industry influence and to place wellbeing ahead of profit, creating healthier communities that make it easier for all of us to thrive.
The onus is therefore on us in public health to amplify the public’s voice. The findings from these juries provide a powerful addition to the evidence base for action on alcohol harms.
I encourage colleagues to make use of the findings in their own advocacy work. A summary of the findings, juror quotes and stories, and other communications resources are available through the Yorkshire and Humber Association of Directors of Public Health’s website.
The citizens’ juries were commissioned and funded by Yorkshire and the Humber Association of Directors of Public Health (Y&H ADPH). The project was delivered by Y&H ADPH alongside researchers from the SPECTRUM research consortium, and two NIHR Health Determinants Research Collaborations hosted within Wakefield and Doncaster Councils. Hopkins Van Mil and Sortition Foundation also provided support for the project.
Declaration of interests: Neither of the authors nor the Yorkshire and Humber Association of Directors of Public Health has received funding or support in kind from alcohol industry stakeholders for this article or any related work.
Written by Marie Rogerson, Public Health Speciality Registrar, Yorkshire and Humber and Peter Roderick, Yorkshire and Humber Association of Directors of Public Health lead for Commercial Determinants of Health; Director of Public Health, City of York Council.
All IAS Blogposts are published with the permission of the author. The views expressed are solely the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the views of the Institute of Alcohol Studies.