Citation

Myers B, Parry CDH. S. Afr. J. Psychol. 2013; 43(4): 402-405.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2013, SAGE Publications)

DOI

10.1177/0081246313504514

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

In early 2013, the minister of health announced that a draft bill, the Control of Alcoholic Beverages Bill, was ready to be presented to parliament (Wolhuter, 2013). This bill, which calls for a total ban on alcohol advertising in South Africa, has sparked massive public debate and backlash from the alcohol and advertising industries. As a counter-attack, the alcohol industry has intensified its advertising of alcohol products and commissioned a study on the projected economic impact of a total ban on alcohol advertising (Econometrix, 2013). The resulting report estimated that approximately 12,000 jobs would be lost as a consequence of tightening regulations around alcohol advertising and calls into question the evidence of an association between alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption, including among young people. The report also suggested that interventions aimed at addressing alcohol use among high-risk individuals and population subgroups would be more effective than broad population-based measures such as increasing price and banning advertising (Econometrix, 2013).