Social media marketing of alcohol to young prompts call to regulate
A survey undertaken by the Medical Journal of Australia into Twitter use by the seven most powerful global alcohol brands has likened their use of social media to former practices of tobacco companies.
A call for regulation has been issued
It concluded that alcohol companies are utilising social media to associate their brands with positive and popular themes.
Researchers from the University of Western Sydney's School of Business said the social network may require regulation similar to the tobacco industry to rein in its ability to influence younger drinkers.
"Twitter is a relatively new platform for companies, and what we found is that it seems to be quite an efficient way to promote their wares," said lead researcher Dr Ann Dadich.
"In addition to their direct audience, they're obviously getting that secondary audience as well. It might seem an unwieldy beast, the Twittersphere, and it's easy to put it in the too-hard basket, but we need to think how far we've come with tobacco," she said.
The report singled out one named beer brand which sent 286 tweets to its 15,043 followers, which were then retweeted 13,523 times.
Victorian Cancer Council senior policy adviser Brian Vandenberg said: "The international evidence about the effects of alcohol marketing shows that the younger people are exposed to it, the more likely they are to start experimenting with alcohol."
He added: "The younger people start drinking, the more likely they are to drink at risky levels, and have alcohol problems later in life, including the cancer risks."