Wine and beer advertising isn’t what it used to be… thank goodness! Juan Revenga

Review advertising it was made from came And beer 40, 50, 60 and more years ago, our hair stood on end: lots of beer for children (yes, for children over 5-7 years old or so), recommendations to drink a whole bottle of wine or wine every day and with every meal, already in the region. liqueursrecommendations before getting into a car to put a glass of brandy between your chest and back to “temper your nerves,” or to take part in a shooting competition with a shotgun in your hand. Not to mention curing the flu by drinking cognac. How do you hear it? You can search in Internetit’s not difficult to find. Just as it will not be difficult for you to find in those years recommendations from doctors or athletes recommending smoke for health and productivity respectively. These were different times.

I confess that on the tobacco issue I hoped that at some point the focus would change so that the most depraved shame of tobacco advertising would be exposed to the whole world. tobacco. But I didn’t have much hope that this would happen with the popularization of healthy consumption alcoholic drinks. I confess that I would never bet a penny on it, despite the fact that for as long as I can remember in the professional world, I have fought – along with a select and initially small group of colleagues – against this kind of mellifluous and self-righteous messaging about drinking alcoholic beverages. drinks.

“Spain is different”

Yes, we are going back to the 60s and the famous slogan with which we debuted as a world power in tourism: we are different. For many reasons. There are good ones and there are bad ones. Secondly, it is the knowledge that of all the guides to healthy eating in the world, one of the most famous is in Spain – the guide Spanish Society of Public Nutrition (SENC) This is the only system that today considers the consumption of wine and beer to be beneficial to health. Yes, the only one in the world. Well, the pyramid of the Mediterranean diet, also Spanish, also plays with the alcoholic idea, but only wine and beer do not appear.

So in the golden years 80s, 90s and first decade of the 21st century. (I’m talking about gold for the alcohol industry) the wine and brewing industries were in full swing, and medical societies were the generals in their marketing strategies. And at the foot of the canyon, an army of medical professionals—usually male and female doctors—who, white coats at the ready and trained at one convention or another (funded in part by the industry), predicted the best health benefits from drinking wine and beer. In those years lobby the alcohol world (institutions that, for the sake of their own interests and usually hiding their origins, influence the administration, public opinion or social activity) to put pressure on political action and the media. In particular, they were called FIVIN (Wine and Nutrition Foundation) and KICS (Information Center “Beer and Health”). The latter today changed its name to FICYE (Forum for Beer and Lifestyle Research). Institutions are created, promoted and defended by wine and beer producers respectively. It is these institutions that still try not to show their feathers and promote “scientific” research in which the object of study is also the object of your business. There is nothing to reproach, except that – despite the wonderful name – they publish only articles in which this object of study (and business) come out on top. They also promote university scholarships, promote “scientific” conferences, and organize or help organize conferences that are not exactly about gastronomy, they are, again, “scientific”. These are all events where they “rub and polish” their products.

What is known about alcoholic beverages that usually does not appear in the media

Let’s look at some of the cornerstones associated with what is known today on the consumption of alcoholic beverages according to the report of the Ministry of Health for 2020:

• Alcohol consumption is a major factor disease riskbeing the main risk factor among the population aged 15-49 years. In 2016, 3.8% of deaths among women and 12.2% among men were attributable to alcohol use worldwide.

• Contributes to the development of more than 200 health problems and injuriesincluding cardiovascular, hepatic, neuropsychiatric and infectious diseases, among others.

• There is strong evidence linking alcohol use and some types of cancerwith a positive dose-response relationship for lesions of the oral cavity, pharynx, larynx, esophagus, colon and rectum, breast (women) and hepatocellular carcinoma; therefore, any level of consumption increases the risk.

• Epidemiological data doesn’t show that, in particular, the consumption of wine and beer, despite the fact that they contain substances that are potentially beneficial to health, has a differential protective effect in terms of reducing cardiometabolic or other types of risk. Therefore, recommending the consumption of certain alcoholic beverages, attributing various benefits to them, this is not justified with available scientific data.

• Based on recommendations based on the above report and current scientific evidence, no health care professional or facility should recommend consumption to improve health.

No, calling for moderation or responsible consumption is not enough.

The point is not that this is not enough, but that reality tells us that such messages are entelechy, an impossible gallery accompaniment. Everyone knows, even those who produce alcoholic beverages, that alcohol is addictive substance and as such, it can be addictive. In this context, the document Prevention of alcohol problems published, again by the Ministry of Health, states with all logic that it is absurd to demand responsible or moderate consumption when we are talking about addictive substances, and this message places full responsibility for possible negative consequences on the user.

These slogans, although they are mandatory for manufacturers to include in advertising of alcoholic beverages, also turn out to be toast to the sun. The messages are included because advertisers are obligated to, but it is clear that they do not believe them and do not expect consumers to consume moderately or responsibly, because otherwise, and very likely, they will go bankrupt and disappear as a company. This study, conducted in the United Kingdom, highlighted that a quarter of people who drink alcoholic beverages report their consumption of alcoholic beverages. high risk or, more directly, harmful. And it turns out that these 25% of consumers buy 78% of all alcoholic beverages sold. In short: if all consumers consumed something considered low risk (say, moderate and/or responsible), it would mean economic bankruptcy for the sector, with losses of 14 billion euros per year.

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