Abstract
There are concerns about the accuracy of the health information provided by alcohol industry (AI)-funded organisations and about their independence. We conducted a content analysis of the health information disseminated by AI-funded organisations through Twitter, compared with non-AI-funded charities, to assess whether their messages align with industry and/or public health objectives. We compared all tweets from 2016 from Drinkaware (UK); Drinkaware.ie (Ireland); and DrinkWise (Australia), to non-AI-funded charities Alcohol Concern (UK), Alcohol Action Ireland, and FARE (Australia). Industry-funded bodies were significantly less likely to tweet about alcohol marketing, advertising and sponsorship; alcohol pricing; and physical health harms, including cancers, heart disease and pregnancy. They were significantly more likely to tweet about behavioural aspects of drinking and less likely to mention cancer risk; particularly breast cancer. These findings are consistent with previous evidence that the purpose of such bodies is the protection of the alcohol market, and of the alcohol industry’s reputation. Their messaging strongly aligns with AI corporate social responsibility goals. The focus away from health harms, particularly cancer, is also consistent with previous evidence. The evidence does not support claims by these alcohol-industry-funded bodies about their independence from industry.
Highlights
As part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, alcohol companies fund a range of social aspects/public relations organisations (SAPROs)
Commitments, which have been a focus of alcohol industry (AI) corporate social responsibility messaging, and are cited by industry as evidence of a commitment to meaningful social contribution, yet avoid population-level measures listed in the WHO’s global alcohol strategy, which are most likely to reduce overall alcohol consumption [9,10] and, negatively affect profits [11,12]
Babor and Robaina (2013) in their analysis of the activities of alcohol industry CSR organisations, describe how “ . . . there are common corporate interests across the spectrum of industry organizations, which sometimes conflict with public health and medical priorities but, at other times, are compatible with them” [41]
Summary
As part of their corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities, alcohol companies fund a range of social aspects/public relations organisations (SAPROs). The stated aims of such organisations are to educate the public and promote “responsible drinking” [1,2], but a growing body of evidence indicates they exist primarily to improve public relations, distract from evidence-based policies and resultant legislation that might be harmful to profits, emphasize personal over corporate responsibility, and mislead the public on health risks [3,4,5,6,7,8]. This is consistent with the global alcohol producers’. Public Health 2019, 16, 892; doi:10.3390/ijerph16050892 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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