While the European men’s football championship is in full swing, many doctors are indignant about the advertising campaign deployed by Heineken in favor of beer.
- In France, there are nearly 43 million alcohol consumers.
- Alcohol consumption is directly or indirectly involved in the occurrence of around sixty diseases.
In a common textaddictologists from several European countries express their dismay at the advertising campaign deployed by Heineken on the occasion of the Euro football tournament.
“Whether or not the bottle in question is alcohol-free makes no difference to the question”
“We thus see the press conferences of coaches and international players taking place in front of a desk on which systematically sits a bottle of beer, sometimes without alcohol, in addition to the apparent advertising in the background”, say health professionals. “It doesn’t seem to bother these football stars to talk about match strategy and at the same time promote beer, which is obviously not performance-enhancing, like all alcohol for that matter,” they criticize.
“The Heineken Brewer has made sure to be present in all the images, from all angles, and above all that all young football fans will see them. Because the objective is clear and pursued with determination: it is about “associate in the minds of spectators, but especially young spectators, the nobility of sport and the consumption of alcohol. Whether or not the bottle in question is alcohol-free does not change the matter”, hammer European addictologists.
“Tolerance to promotion must end”
All scientists and health actors worldwide agree on the fact that alcohol consumption presents a health risk. “Any consumption, even low, has a deleterious effect on health”, for example, Inserm recently underlined in a new report. “Alcohol was the 7th cause of loss of years of life in good health in the world in 2016, and also the first cause of hospitalization in France”, reminded the scientists then. Mortality attributable to alcohol, higher in France than elsewhere in Europe, is 11% of deaths for men and 4% for women among those aged 15 and over, i.e. 41,000 deaths (30,000 among men and 11,000 in women).
“This is why the signatories of this text urge the sports and health authorities of European countries to cease their tolerance for the promotion, direct or indirect, of alcohol in an international sports competition such as Euro 2021” , say addictologists. “These practices are not conducive to health and do not honor the sport”, they conclude.
An opinion that corresponds to the state of mind of some of the players. After the France-Germany match, Paul Pogba hid a bottle of beer from the Euro sponsor brand in the middle of a press conference. In the same state of mind and similar circumstances, Cristiano Ronaldo dismissed bottles of Coca-Cola to praise the merits of water over drinks that were too sweet.
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