Those of you with even a modicum of knowledge of alcohol
policy will know that this title is not original but taken from a very famous
book by Babor et al. However it is a
good way to introduce a few of my rambling thoughts on how normalised alcohol
has become in our culture. The stimulus
for this was an encounter on twitter.
Many tweets (I am just of guilty of this) are bit jokey and often
somewhat facile. I received a tweet
inviting all people following the strand to a school fete where high end vodka
would be sold. The school was in the
independent sector and catered from children of all ages. There was an interaction to establish what
was taking place. Apparently there was a
licence for this event and it was not to promote the product. Now I am sure academic careers have been made
on discussing the distinction between promotion and selling but as the
reasonable man it strikes me that the ultimate aim is the same-to sell more of
the product. In the past I have been a
treasurer for a PTA and I know the financial pressures schools are under and I
have no doubt this is perfectly legal but have we really reached a point where
everything is a marketing opportunity?
It has been a couple of months since my last blog and in
that time I have been involved in a rather bruising encounter with someone who
represents the licence trade and it has become clear to me that if my
experiences are typical there is now a chasm between the public health community
and the alcohol industry in its many forms.
The gloves are off and it is imperative that we must stop scoring own
goals. I do not consider the recent
decision on the part of the Office of National Statistics not to rely on
alcohol attributable fractions when calculating alcohol related morbidity to be
an own goal and accept that a case has been made that the way they are
currently being used is not sufficiently robust to base policy decisions
upon. Furthermore they way they have
been calculated has been transparent from day one.
However I have a plea. Even if it
prestigious to work with the BBC and I understand the need for sound bites, can
we be transparent please. Recently the
University of Sheffield announced what turned out to be a fourfold overestimate
of alcohol related morbidity/mortality in the elderly. I looked in vain for details as to how the
calculations were made as I doubted them but could not find any. We all have deadlines to meet but if you are
not sure, and the figures have not been adequately checked, don’t release
them. It is not merely the reputation
of a prestigious department that is called into question but those of us who
want to see some checks and balances in an atmosphere that increasing lauds
unfettered capitalism.
Now back to the normalisation. Over the past 10-15 years it has become
increasingly commonplace to see two or three sections of a supermarket entirely
devoted to selling alcohol, often at cut price.
Not to mention strategically placed bottles of wine at the end of aisles
where no alcohol is sold to remind us to treat ourselves (if we had
forgotten). We will shortly be in the
Christmas season and no doubt there will be more of this. I note that in Northampton the large
supermarkets are going to work with the police to prevent alcohol related crime
over the Xmas season. How is this going
to tally with selling alcohol at discount prices? Silly me, of course they will only sell to
“responsible consumers.” However we
cannot entirely blame the supermarkets.
They are merely reflecting what we as customers expect and demand. We seem quite happy to acquiesce in the
supermarkets desire to treat buying alcohol as routinely as milk and
bread. How have we reached this state
of affairs?
In a post script a tweet was sent out on Saturday night
thanking people for attending the fete with a photograph of the vodka attached
saying that the majority was sold. There
were also a number of congratulatory tweets that followed. It appears that as the country slides further
to the right in a bid to become leaner and fitter (and for the vast majority
significantly poorer) that we must all worship on the altar of unfettered
capitalism regardless. So it seems it is
ok to sell alcohol at a Xmas school fete and nobody bats an eyelid. I suggest at some point we appear to be losing
the plot.
But over the past eight years at least, alcohol consumption in this country has been steadily falling, so you can't really blame the supermarkets for leading us all down the path to perdition.
ReplyDeleteDear Curmudgeon
ReplyDeleteThe age groups where consumption is falling is 16-24 (dramatically). Once individuals reach 30 their consumption tends to plateau and in some cases rise. Most of this group purchase their alcohol from supermarkets. Consumption data needs to be unpacked for trends in different groups.
I completely agree with you John. I see in my work middle aged women who have gone from social drinkers, pre child rearing, to hidden, home drinkers who have a problem at best, or drink hazardously at worst. It is this unseen tsunami of problem drinkers, some professional, others stay at home Mums, who need a great deal of support and empathy to tackle their addiction which leads to chaotic lifestyles, family breakdown, and domestic violence.
ReplyDeleteThamk you for kind comments and good luck with your work. My blog may not have made it clear but I am alcohol researcher. I would like to explore this issue much more as thus far much of what is known is anecdotal. I already had a proposal to explore this designed but it was not funded a year ago. If you can email me on J.H.Foster@gre.ac.uk I would be grateful. You can follow me on twitter @johnfoster12.
DeleteInteresting stuff. Is a key issue here (which you I think you allude to in the discussion of supermarkets) that there's still a big emphasis (certainly in the media, maybe in a lot of policy?) on the individual level (awareness, education, responsibility) and much less on the higher level issues (e.g. marketing, availability) and how these interact with individual level factors?
ReplyDeleteQuite right. Alcohol is being brought into daily living more and more - little wonder over consumption is increasing.
ReplyDeleteI'd love to see alcohol sales simply being banned completely from all points of sale, except off-licences, pubs, and licenced restaurants.
Of course, it's unlikely the will of the public would ever rise to overpower the interests of powerful supermarket lobbyists, but simply separating alcohol sales from general sales could greatly restore a wary respect of alcohol that's long lost.
Perhaps it might also help to curtail the continuing attempts of marketers to appeal to the young with alco-pops etc.
It could also provide a much needed restoration of our old village pubs as pleasant and thriving social watering-holes
~S~