Ireland’s drinks industry has said that it continues to work with stakeholders to put in place further safeguards to prevent minors seeing alcohol marketing online, and also on emerging areas, including influencer advertising.
“The drinks industry is committed to tackling underage drinking and have a long and proud history of doing our part to prevent young people being exposed to alcohol marketing," Patricia Callan, Director of Drinks Ireland said.
In September 2018, Drinks Ireland, committed to work together with Facebook (incl. Instagram), Snapchat, and YouTube to establish new standards and practices for marketing responsibility online.
The commitment was made through the International Alliance for Responsible Drinking (IARD), a not-for-profit organisation dedicated to reducing harmful drinking and promoting understanding of responsible drinking, on behalf of Drinks Ireland which is a member of the organisation, alongside other global drinks companies and representative groups.
Age Screening
Since then, the group which represents alcohol drinks manufacturers and suppliers in Ireland said that leading drinks companies in Ireland and globally have been working with these online platforms to implement age screening on online channels, 'complemented by specific and platform-appropriate technology to help ensure marketing reaches those over the legal purchase age'.
Callan highlighted: “Today we know that most young people are online and on social media, so it’s vital that their exposure to alcohol marketing here is reduced. As such, we are proud to continue our work with IARD and global online platforms to do this.”
In partnership with the online platforms, the industry continues to improve these protections and will roll out safeguards that help ensure that all new alcohol-related channels or campaigns are marketed responsibly online.
© 2019 Checkout – your source for the latest Irish retail news. Article by Donna Ahern. Click sign-up to subscribe to Checkout.
