E-Malt.com News article: UK: Shepherd Neame brewery’s boss slams call to ban drink ads

The boss of a major Kent brewery says grassroots sports clubs in the county would be seriously damaged if a call for a ban on alcohol advertising is heeded, Kent News reported May 13.

Jonathan Neame, chief executive of Faversham-based Shepherd Neame, was speaking after a Kent MP called for the advertising restrictions.

Dr Howard Stoate, Labour member for Dartford – and a GP – made the demand in an article for a Labour think-tank.

But Mr Neame said: “There is a series of government reviews going on about alcohol at the moment. One of them is called the Price Promotions Review.

"We understand the publication date for that is in September, so my immediate reaction is putting the cart before the horse.”

John Paton, who runs the world-famous Lashings cricket team from a restaurant in Maidstone, said they needed to keep their sponsorship deal with champagne maker Mumm.

He said: “If they left it would leave a big hole in our finances. It would also reduce our ability to take international cricketers to schools, colleges and clubs, which I think encourages fitness and exercise – which is what the Government wants.

“Calling for a ban of alcohol advertising is a nice easy one to jump on, but it needs to be thought through.

“If it prevents us helping kids into sport it is defeating the object of the exercise.”

Cash and Dave Whitehead, chairman of Thanet Wanderers rugby club, said they rely heavily on backing from Thorley Taverns.

“It would affect us badly if the company was forced to leave us,” he said. “We need them for financial help in running the club for the whole year. We get a lump sum of cash, and help running the club bar. I would hate to see them forced out of the game.”

Writing in the latest edition of the Fabian Review, Dr Stoate, who is a member of the influential Commons’ health select committee, said more needs to be done to separate alcohol promotion and sport.

He said: “We need a more radical measure that will prevent alcohol companies from associating themselves with the excitement and glamour of professional sport and using it to boost their sales among the young in particular,” he said.

“A complete ban on alcohol advertising or sponsorship within sport is the only way of achieving this.”

He added there are “dozens of references to alcohol” during televised football matches.

“Carlsberg, who sponsor Liverpool, have become the most popular drinks brand in the country. Their Merseyside neighbours Everton are sponsored by Chang Beer.

“Carling not only sponsors the Carling Cup, but Rangers too. You see drinks firms’ logos on team shirts, drinks adverts on hoardings beside the pitch, drinks commercials at half time, bottles of champagne for the man of the match. The list is endless.”

Shepherd Neame sponsors the Kent County Cricket Club teams, with Spitfire backing the one-day side and Master Brew for the four-day team. It also has its name on hoardings at the club ground, on the players’ shirts and also in the programme. But the Shepherd Neame logo was removed from the children’s replica kits as that was deemed to be “inappropriate” said a spokesman for the brewery.

Mr Neame said: “My response to the call for a ban on advertising is, show me the evidence.

“Traditionally, advertising is a way of a brand gaining market share, and does very little to influence consumption.

“If this sort of advertising was stopped, a lot of grassroots sports clubs would lose their sponsor.

“The reason we sponsor is because we get beer supply.”

He added: “What is being implied by the calls to ban advertising is that the beer market is rampant, which it is not. The market is in its fastest rate of decline in 40 years.

“So where is the evidence that alcohol advertising drives consumption? Binge drinking is caused by other factors.”

In his article, Dr Stoate pointed out that alcohol advertising rules say adverts must not link alcohol with ‘daring’ or ‘toughness’ or suggest it may enhance ‘physical performance’ or appeal to the under-18s.

“And yet it seems the regulators and the Government see nothing wrong in allowing our leading football teams and most successful sportsmen – with their millions of young fans – to be closely associated with alcohol products,” he claimed.

Dr Stoate said young people are drinking more than ever. Since 1990, the alcohol consumption by 11 to 15-year-olds in England has doubled and alcohol misuse is also having a growing impact on young people’s health, the MP said.

“Teenagers as young as 13 are being admitted to hospital for alcohol-related treatment. And, for the first time, liver specialists are now seeing patients in their 20s and 30s with end-stage alcoholic liver disease.”

The Fabian Review is published by the Fabian Society, a Labour think-tank founded in 1884.


13 May, 2008