Eight of Europe's biggest alcohol companies, including AB InBev, Bacardi, Diageo, Heineken and SAB Miller have agreed the "Responsible Marketing Pact", being launched to cover the EU.
Following pressure from the European Alcohol Health Forum (EAHF) and calls from health professionals, the voluntary agreement includes a commitment work together to create common standards on social media marketing and age appropriate advertising in each of the 27 member states.
The companies have agreed that the contents of ads should appeal mainly to adults. Further, children should not be exposed to alcohol ads or inadvertently see them on sites such as Facebook. This will be regulated through the use of age verification systems and the creation of standards for user generated content on official fan pages.
This will be policed in the UK by the well-established Advertising Standards Authority who will "name and shame" repeat offenders.
South Africa too has also seen increased pressure from various bodies about against alcohol advertising and sponsorship, and the self-regulating body the Advertising Standards Authority of South Africa has a separate appendix to its Advertising Code dealing specifically with advertising in the alcohol industry, which reinforces the Code of the Industry Association for Responsible Alcohol Use (ARA).
