Spirit producer demands equal treatment

Photo: Peeter Langovits / Postimees

State expects alcohol ads to quit promoting lifestyle, but beer and cider producers flaunt liquor as part of life «worth living».

As agreed by compilers of alcohol policy green book, Advertising Act is to be changed to only allow alcohol ads to present neutral information on the characteristics of their products, avoiding showing people, describing atmosphere and telling stories.

While compiling the green book, a marked difference was spotted between alcohol producers, importers and traders, on the one hand, and health activists and representatives of the state – on the other. The former not deeming it necessary to impose further restrictions on content of ads, pushing the self-regulation notion.

What, however, is the reality? Glancing at alcohol ads in TV or media, these are filled with positive people whose poses and words proclaim how cool it is to tipple and what a wonderful mood is created by drinking. «If this is not hypocrisy, then what is it?» asks Estonia’s only spirit producer, the Moe Spirit Factory chief Sven Ivanov.

Ads show cool life

«They talk of self-regulation and the desire to focus on the product, but still they offer lifestyle.» Mr Ivanov is aware that, when fighting for his views as a spirit producer, he is bad. And when speaking up for stricter rules, it comes across as hypocritical.

Even so, the Moe factory is due some honour – as the sole spirit making factory in the land, the Rakvere-Moe plant had diligently and strictly followed the green book principles: with neutral product information only, no stories and no people.

Starting July 1^st, the Beer Association members A. Le Coq, Saku Brewery and Viru Õlu Ltd lowered the strength of cider to 4.5 per cent and long drink to 5.5 per cent, in order to help the state green book goals – reducing absolute alcohol consumption. «We wished to show that alcohol market is not only regulated by laws and bans, that the entrepreneurs themselves can show social responsibility,» said the Beer Association CEO Peeter Võrk.

However, that very same book expects alcohol ads not to present boozing as part of attractive lifestyle. True, the brewers have adopted a rule not to advertise strong beers; and, in order to reduce accidents, the following clause has been added into their code of ethics: water bodies and swimming is not to be featured in advertisements of beer and other alcoholic beverages.»

Hypocritical policy

Mr Võrk thinks the green book policy hypocritical. «No-one drinks due to advertisements, this is done by pressure by society. To expect ads not to link drinking with parties, that’s strange – to put it mildly,» said Mr Võrk.

«The focus needs to be on minors, with whom it is not decisive to change the ads but to make it more difficult to obtain alcohol and to impose documents checks; also focusing on excessive consumers on whom the ads have no effect, as they make the purchasing decision behind the store,» claimed Mr Võrk.

Mr Võrk also underlined that should promotion of domestic brands be banned in Estonia, the foreign producers will gain from that as advertisement pressure cannot be applied to them.

According to Mr Ivanov, nobody is talking of total ban of sales or ads of alcohol; rather, it is about raising people’s awareness and directing the drinking culture towards a more civilised way, to tame the canned low-alcohol business.

«As long as the lifestyle bling-bling stays in the ads, state and producers act two-faced,» states Mr Ivanov. «There is no sense in saying that low-alcohol stuff is good and strong alcohol bad. Alcohol is alcohol. Makes no difference whether it comes in a cider can or some other format.»

In Mr Ivanov’s opinion, no-one desires to go deeper in alcohol policy. He thinks green book should treat all alcohol producers the same.

«The can business of today has gone totally wild. Not long ago, I was at a fair in Germany; they showed how the cans contained all chemicals from A to Z.»

«You may make yourself any kind of mixtures, in the garage. No-one knows what is being drunk, no regulation whatsoever,» said Mr Ivanov, adding that while the initial alcohol policy version contained a proposal to raise beer excise to the same level as strong alcohol, now it has disappeared.

«The green book people need to take a look in the mirror. Why do this, if it’s empty and superficial?»

«Whom are we fooling? A single green sheet would do: raise excise,» concludes Mr Ivanov. «The state should do counter-advertisements in the same volume, that alcohol is harmful. But how can you expect that as we have our warning sentence: alcohol may cause harm to your health.» Mr Ivanov makes the last three words sound like a toast, with a few exclamation marks.

Low-alcohol excise lower

As the long term state plan includes yearly rises of alcohol excise, Riigikogu, at the end of 2012, passed an alcohol, tobacco, fuel and electricity market act amendment, whereby a 5 per cent alcohol excise rise is prescribed for four consecutive years regarding all types of alcohol.

Therefore, an ethanol unit in beer will now be taxed at 2.6 times lower rate than an equal amount in strong alcohol. Other low-alcohol beverages – ciders, wines, fortified wines – will be taxed at an even lower rate, even though the effect of the alcohol contained therein is the same and Estonian healthcare institutions consider the taxation differences unreasonable.

Beer brewers have predicted 50 per cent fall of consumption should beer be prescribed excise equal to other alcoholic beverages. Reality reveals, however, that a few cents added to beer price does not lower consumption of it.

According to Estonian Institute of Economic Research, average beer retail price in 2010 rose three euro cents year-on-year, sales increasing by 10 million litres. In 2011, retail beer price rose by six cents (incl. 2.6 cents due to excise) year-on-year – sales increasing by 2 million litres.

State opinion on alcohol advertisements

Alternative 1

•    Totally prohibiting alcohol advertisements in all channels

Alternative 2

•    Setting additional restrictions to alcohol advertisement content and limiting the volume thereof in various channels

•    Alcohol advertisements may only present neutral information on the main characteristics of the products, avoiding showing people, describing atmosphere, telling stories

Restricting advertisement in following channels

•    Prohibiting outdoors advertising

•    Complementing restriction in printed media so as to have alcohol ads banned, in addition to front and back covers of newspapers and magazines, also from front and back covers of additional/special editions of newspapers and magazines  

•    Imposing additional time restrictions on alcohol advertising in TV and radio: alcohol advertising being prohibited from 7 am to 10 pm

•    Allowing alcohol advertising only on websites of alcohol handlers

•    Alternative proposal: prohibiting alcohol advertising on front pages of news portals, Internet versions of newspapers and magazines and web search engines

Producers’ opinions

Alcohol Producers and Importers Association proposes that the green book contain the following:

•    Applying restrictions of availability and sales promotion of alcoholic beverages equally upon all alcoholic beverages

•    Imposing equal taxation on all alcoholic beverages, based on the strength of the beverage and not the method of its production

•    Altering the day of excise payment so producers would not have to take on additional loans to make timely payments of the excise rising yearly