The Health Bill, which MPs are starting to examine this Tuesday afternoon, could well relax the advertising framework for thealcohol. As adopted on March 13 by the Social Affairs Committee of the National Assembly, Marisol Touraine’s project indeed provides for an amendment for this.
Concretely, it would simply be a question of redefining the scope of the law so that the wine press and wine tourism are no longer hampered by the current law in terms of advertising.
But while the debate has not yet started, voices are already rising against such a measure. Alcoholologists from several associations have written to the President of the Republic to protest against the health effects of a relaxation of advertising on alcohol.
“If this provision were voted, it is the entire population, and in particular young people, who would be exposed to unlimited promotion in favor of alcohol consumption”, write the National Association for the prevention of alcoholism and addictology (ANPAA), the French Federation of Alcoholology (FFA), the French Society of Alcohols (SFA) and the French Society of Public Health (SFSP) in a letter made public Monday and reported by AFP.
“It would be paradoxical and damaging for a law aimed at improving prevention to make it easier to promote alcohol, which is directly responsible for 49,000 deaths per year”, add the signatories of the letter to the President. Alcoholologists therefore ask François Hollande not to question the Evin law, which since 1991 has given France a balanced framework “which allows both information on alcoholic beverages and a framework for advertising”.
The four signatory organizations contest the amendment by PS deputy Denys Robiliard, defining alcohol advertising as “an act of promotion carried out in favor of a product or service, relating to the activity of a person with an interest in the promotion of said product or service and likely to be perceived as an act of promotion by a consumer of average attention “.
“This definition will allow promotional communication, especially when it will be made by VIPs because it will be very difficult to prove the existence of a link of interest between the brand and the VIP” underlines Dr Alain Rigaud, president ANPAA at the microphone of AFP. The latter also wonders about the fuzzy notion of “average attention consumer” to assess whether or not it is an advertisement advocating alcohol consumption.
Remember that in France, if alcohol consumption decreases, it is considered the 2nd cause of premature death in France.
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