New Fact Sheet: Testing content restrictions in self-regulation codes10 March 2013  In 2010, the five NGOs participating in the AMMIE project selected 84 alcohol marketing practices that appeared to be in violation of existing national rules for self-regulation. We filed complaints against these practices at the national Alcohol Advertising Committees, who are to decide whether these complaints are to be upheld (or not).
The NGOs proceeded to ask five Youth Rating Panels from the participating countries to give their opinions on a selection of the complaints. In Denmark, 40 youngsters participated, in Germany 30, and in the Netherlands 37. In Italy, 57 young people were included in the first round, whereas the last group consisted of only 22 young people. In Bulgaria, 29 people took part in the first round, and in the fourth round 21 youngsters took part. Altogether, 199 young people between 12-18 years of age participated in one or more rounds. Their answers were compared to the decisions of the Advertising Code Committees.
 complaints-fact-sheet-versie-2013-2b.pdf (1,50 MB)
Trendreport: Super strong beers in Europe19 December 2012  Beers with a high alcohol content are prevalent throughout Europe. They are also easily accessible, relatively inexpensive and often packaged in ‘super-sized’ containers (up to bottles of three litres).
This unprecedented research was conducted by EUCAM, through volunteers in 16 European countries. The volunteers took note of all the beers sold in two supermarkets and two specialized stores in their hometown. Their target was to look for beers with an alcohol content exceeding 7%.
This resulted in the identification of 734 strong beers, which were evaluated on the following characteristics: brand, type, alcohol percentage, volume of the container, and the price at which the product was sold.
Some key points of the research:
-The highest amounts of alcohol content on average were found in Austria (10.03%), Belgium (9.53%), and France (9.33%).
- Alarmingly Austria and Belgium are also two countries where beer with high levels of alcohol content is available relatively inexpensively (average per unit price of €1.90 and €2.02, respectively).
-On average the least expensive strong beers were found in Poland (€0.86), closely followed by the Czech Republic (€0.94).
-Price per unit of ‘strong’ beer was found to be highest in state monopolies, cheaper in liquor stores, and cheapest in supermarkets.
-Most beverages were contained in 330ml bottles or 500ml cans, but larger containers were also found, most notably the three litre bottles of cider with an alcohol content of 7.3-7.5% from the United Kingdom (containing a staggering 22.5 Standard Alcohol Units).
-Arguably, looking at the packaging, the size, and the price per unit of the containers a few outliers of the 734 identified products are overtly aimed at contributing to quick and inexpensive consumption which may consequently lead to drunkenness.
This research does not make any scientifically based claim, but was purely intended as a first explorative and non-representative overview of strong beers in Europe. Because we have no data on the level of consumption and the type of consumers, we cannot make grounded conclusions concerning a propensity of beer with high levels of alcohol content to contribute to irresponsible alcohol consumption.
The report also comes with three clear policy recommendations intended to cut down on the irresponsible usage of beers with high alcohol contents:
1. Irresponsible drinking behaviour can be curbed by raising the prices of beer with high levels of alcohol content.
2. Binge drinking might be deterred by reducing the size of containers.
3. Lessen the availability, by raising the barrier for people to buy beer with a high level of alcohol content. Simply said, get strong beers out of the supermarkets.
trend-report-strong-beers-final-december-2012.pdf (1,32 MB) Fact Sheet: Sport Sponsoring in the Netherlands10 July 2012  An analysis of the top ten sport clubs of the five most popular sports in the Netherlands showed that more than half were sponsored by alcohol producers.
This fact sheet summarizes the results of research conducted in the AMMIE project. fs-20120522-ammie-sportsponsorship-netherlands-.pdf (85,0 kB) EUCAM reports | |
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