A number of US-based universities last week expressed concern about the number of adverts, particularly for beer brands, during the country's televised university-based sporting events, urging a rethink of current advertising policies.
Ad concerns
The concerns, which have been put forward by the US-based Centre for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI), will put further pressure on drinks groups to amend how they promote their products, though experts in markets like the UK believe calls for similar measures are not required.
In a letter addressed to National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) president Myles Brand, the CSPI, citing support from 280 universities and colleges, called for further reductions in advertising time drink makers are allowed during college sports broadcasts.
"We respectfully request that the issue of televised beer advertising during the NCAA tournament once again be considered by the NCAA's Division I board of directors and the executive committee in their upcoming meetings," the letter stated. "The most recent discussion of the issue occurred in 2005, with no change in NCAA policy."
The CSPI claimed commitments made at these discussions over alcohol advertising had not been followed stringently.
Current policy
The group claimed that the NCAA had agreed to limit alcoholic adverts to no more than 60 seconds per hour, or more than 120 seconds of promotion time during a single telecast.
As part of its complaint, the CSPI said that even these guidelines were not followed, with the organisation claiming that 200 seconds of air time were given to beer advertising during a recent UCLA versus Memphis broadcast.
Tracy Downs, manager for the CSPI affiliated group Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV said that despite these alleged breaches of policy, the NCAA policy did not do enough to curb alcohol advertising.
"[The restrictions are] 60 seconds too much," she stated. "But exceeding that limit shows that the NCAA has a cavalier, 'devil may care' attitude about exposing kids to beer ads."
The NCAA, which is a voluntary organisation that governs the athletic programs of US colleges and universities, was unable to respond to the allegations before publishing.
UK advertising
While college sports in the UK are rarely televised or supported on a scale similar tothe US, alcohol promotion during televised sporting events is still seen as a major means of promotion for drinks makers.
While European policy varies on using sporting teams and events to promote alcohol, the UK's Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) said that it did not have a specific set of rulings governing alcohol advertisements during sporting events.
A spokesperson for the ASA told BeverageDaily.com that as with any other televised program, sports broadcasts were required to adhere to its general principles on advertising alcohol.
The spokesperson said the ASA policy saw no reason therefore why sporting events should have any different advertising restrictions to other programs.
"While we encourage producers not to target under 18s through their advertising, the audience of sporting events tend to be a broad demographic," the spokesperson said. "We instead use restrictions that are applicable to every advert as part of a catch-all solution."
Sponsorship
Outside of broadcasting, some alcohol companies are also actively involved in sponsoring European sporting events or entire teams, a practice outlawed in France, but allowed in UK sports.
The Portman group, an industry led UK-based social responsibility group, told BeverageDaily.com that it saw no problems with the practice, providing its own strict guidelines were met by manufacturers.
Michael Thompson, head of communications for the group, said that regulations on sports sponsorship had been continuously evolving and could, if done correctly, benefit both the responsible drinking campaign and sport itself.
Potential benefits
Under the rules, alcohol groups should not be sponsoring events in which 25 per cent of participants or spectators are not legally eligible to drink.
As part of the guidelines, the Portman Group also said that it looked for sponsors to promote responsible drinking measures, a move it said had already been seen from football clubs such as Glasgow's Celtic and Rangers teams, which have both been sponsored by Carling.
"In some cases core funding from groups like Carlsberg, which sponsor the English Football Association (FA) are also being ploughed back into grass roots sports to encourage young people to take up exercise," Thompson said. "As long as sponsorships that are in place are following the guidelines, there should be no problem with them."
However, Thompson said that the guidelines outlined by the Portman Group for sports sponsorship had continued to evolve over the past five or six years to meet various challenges.
"We believed that there were too many people wearing sports shirts branded with alcohol labels, and therefore asked firms to offer unbranded versions of the same shirts," Thompson stated.
Since last year, the Portman group has also outlawed the use of any alcohol sponsorship on children's replica sports shirts as an extension of the focus.
Any manufacturer found to be breaching the restrictions will be blacklisted by retailers until it complies with the changes, the Portman group added.
However, the new rules will not apply to any sponsorship deals made in 2006 or 2007, the group said.
