Our response to Scottish Government consultation on restricting alcohol advertising and promotion

Restricting alcohol marketing is identified as one of the World Health Organization’s three ‘best buys’, the most cost-effective measures that WHO recommends to prevent and reduce alcohol-related harm. Many our European neighbours have already taken action to restrict alcohol marketing including Ireland, France and Norway. This consultation sets out a potential approach for Scotland. 

The consultation is seeking views on proposed options to restrict advertising and marketing on alcohol across a range of settings and types of marketing. 

In our response, we outline that alcohol is an important source of excess calories for adults in Scotland and is one class of health harming products. There are several common factors and actions based on evidence that seek to improve the food and drink environment for consumers that would lead to improvements in the health and wellbeing of the population. 

Restrictions on alcohol advertising are a critical step in developing a framework for future action on other health-harming commodities, such as unhealthy discretionary food and drink products high in fat, salt and sugar (HFSS). Being prepared to act to restrict alcohol marketing now paves the way for future action on other health-harming products, specifically actions promoting access to healthy food and discouraging purchase and consumption of health-harming food products, through comprehensive population-level public-health policy actions which recognise the need to change the food environment to one focused on the prevention of obesity.