REALISING OUR RIGHTS: How to protect people from alcohol marketing

Exposure to alcohol marketing causes consumption. Alcohol marketing encourages positive attitudes towards alcohol, influences our drinking behaviour and creates a culture
where regular alcohol consumption is considered normal and desirable. Someone loses their life to alcohol somewhere
in the world every ten seconds and alcohol causes more than 200 diseases and conditions as well as injury and suicide. The contribution of alcohol marketing to this significant burden of harm must be recognised and states must act
to protect people from it and ensure their right to health.
In September 2020, Alcohol Focus Scotland reconstituted an international expert network on alcohol marketing (‘the Network’) to update its 2017 report on alcohol marketing,
Promoting Good Health from Childhood, and inform action by the Scottish Government. The Network ran to June 2022, involving experts in alcohol marketing research, law and policy as they relate to the protection of public health.
This report builds on the Network’s first report by:
• increasing the scope of the alcohol marketing activities considered;
• expanding the populations of interest beyond children and young people to include people with (or at risk of)
an alcohol problem and the general population;
• utilising an expanded evidence base and hearing directly from people affected by alcohol marketing;
• framing the case for statutory regulation of alcohol marketing as a human rights issue;
and
• presenting recommendations on how countries can best regulate alcohol marketing as well specifying how these
can apply in Scotland.

A literature review and case study research commissioned to support this work have been published alongside this report.