Editor’s Leader column, October 2009

I am very annoyed about a call to ban alcohol advertising in England and Wales. Health experts – such as those within the British Medical Association – are concerned for the welfare of society since estimates show that 40,000 people die in the UK each year due to the demon drink. A similar ban is being considered in Australia (page 7).

I concede that images of youngsters lying sick in gutters are repellant to those of us for whom alchohol represents recreation, not obliteration. But curbing alcohol promotion is not the way to stamp out alcohol abuse; education through increased social campaigning is. No-one called for a ban on sexy advertising when AIDS became a global concern . . . indeed, marketing communications have been vital in helping to curb the virus, such as through ‘shock and awe’ awareness campaigns (page 14).

What an ad ban at the sharp-end of this recession would create is more joblessness – in the (already hammered) drinks trade, of course, but also among marketers: £800million is currently spent on promoting alcohol; twice as much as on food marketing. But if a ban were actioned, wine club offers would be obsolete and sports sponsorships defunct. As product placement TV ads get the
go-ahead in the UK in order to prop up ailing commercial channels, soapstars and celebs will be allowed to sip Coke on screen, but not Guinness . . . which is not at all fair. Meanwhile, all those involved in alcohol promotion, whose taxes have erstwhile paid doctors’ wages, will be drawing dole instead.
    

Why stop at booze ads? Car accidents create huge workloads for medics, so why not ban auto ads and get those lethal weapons off the road?

OK, that’s facetious, but you get my point. Why should those who can’t control their drinking spoil the party for the rest of us? Aiming to correct a binge-drinking culture is at the tip of a nannyish ice cube. Here come the booze police. Since smokers (I’m not one of them) have been frogmarched from public places, I wonder if today’s squeaky-clean bars can survive at all.     

British consumers apparently owe £1.46 trillion (page 4) but are striving to clear that debt. Yet the Bank of England is concerned about the ‘paradox of thrift’ – consumers account for two-thirds of total spending, so a reduction in consumption affects output and thereby household income – ergo, as shopaholics reform, their frugality hurts the economy. In the UK, 52 pubs a week are closing, thanks to the greedy taxman, price wars and bans such as smoking – heaven forfend that the bid to re-educate drunks escalates into Prohibition. 

My father’s motto was: ‘Moderation in all things, including moderation.’ I’ll drink to that.