Industry compliance with alcohol self-regulation marketing codes: A review

Background Alcohol advertising in the U.S. and other countries is regulated through advertising codes, which are often administered through a self-regulatory mechanism.  Systematic research using both quantitative and qualitative methods has focused on alcohol advertising content, exposure markets, and compliance with the codes.  There has also been a number of unpublished reports by government agencies, non-profit organizations, and research centers.  This presentation critically reviews the international literature in terms of methods, findings and conclusions.  Method Peer-reviewed published literature was collected through a systematic review of SCOPUS, Web of Science and PubMed.  Unpublished reports were located by searching literature produced by public health agencies, alcohol research centers, non-governmental organizations, and government research centers. Results In all, 64 peer-reviewed articles and 44 unpublished reports were included.  The reported findings suggest that there are high levels of exposure to alcohol advertisements among all age groups and among all media reported on (television, radio, movies, print, online, public space).  The content of alcohol ads has often been found to violate relevant advertising codes, and many ads contain elements that are attractive to youth.  Complaints about advertisements are often dismissed and action is rarely taken against companies that produce non-compliant ads. Conclusions In countries where systematic procedures have been applied to the evaluation of marketing self-regulation codes, the research strongly indicates a lack of effectiveness in protecting vulnerable populations from objectionable content and exposure.  Standardized methodology needs to be implemented for continued surveillance activities.