The Alcohol Beverage Federation of Ireland (ABFI) has welcomed new research from Empathy Research for Checkout’s Retail Intelligence which shows that most people are not opposed to alcohol sponsorship.
Of 992 participants in the survey, 69% Of People Not Opposed To Alcohol Sponsorship while 39% disagreed or strongly disagreed that there should be a ban on alcohol sponsorship of sporting events. A third (30%) neither agreed nor disagreed.
Kathryn D’Arcy, Director of ABFI said: “Let’s picture for a moment the hugely negative impact that a ban on sports sponsorship would actually have. As communities and businesses work hard to survive, we must not cut off vital funding to our sporting organisations.”
The survey also showed that 43% think that alcohol brand sponsorship helps to improve the running of sporting events. Those that agreed mostly with this statement were men, with 56% saying they ‘agree’ or ‘strongly agree’ that alcohol sponsorship helps improve the running of sporting events compared to 32% of women.
D’Arcy continued: “There is no evidence to support the fact that sponsorship drives consumption or indeed binge drinking […] At a time when our economy is on the up and industry needs a boost, a sponsorship ban would damage the drinks industry while doing absolutely doing nothing to change Ireland’s drinking culture.
D’Arcy said that ABFI has repeatedly called on the Government to focus on the sale of cheap alcohol, introduce a statutory ban on price-based advertising and introduce statutory codes to regulate the merchandising of alcohol, instead of pushing for an outright ban on sports advertising by alcohol companies.
© 2014 - Checkout Magazine by Genna Patterson
