The effect of alcohol sponsorship in sport events on children’s attitude essay
Sponsorship has now become one of the most powerful marketing tools, as sponsorship of various cultural and sports activities is a method of promotion and advertising of companies, brands or products. This is evidenced and proved by many researchers and scientists: Crompton (2004), Cornwell and Maignan (1998), Gwinner and Swanson (2003), McDaniel (1999), Walliser (2003) and other.
At the same time the greatest development has reached sponsorship of sports events and competitions, ranging from local youth games and ending football championships and the Olympic games. According to McDaniel and Heald (2000), sports sponsorship accounts about two thirds of the total market, and the amount of expenditures exceeds $50 billion. (McDaniel and Heald, 2000)
Sport attracts a huge number of fans and just the audience, which is very beneficial to marketers. Sports sponsorship gives companies access to large audiences, who are potential customers, improves recognition and brand awareness, helps to attract customers. That is, in fact it is a form of advertising, which has an impact on audiences of all ages.
That is why one of the most pressing issues is sponsorship of sporting events by alcohol and tobacco brands. After all, there is an assertion that advertising of cigarettes and alcohol has an effect on people, who begin to buy more of such products. This is especially dangerous when it comes to youth, teens and children.
In this paper it is necessary to consider the impact of advertising on children and young people, namely, of alcohol advertising. Since sponsorship is actually a kind of advertising, what the impact it has on young people and whether it motivates youth to buy and drink alcoholic beverages? It is also necessary to address the issue of advertising ban of alcohol, including the sponsorship of alcoholic beverages in sport events.
THE EFFECT OF ALCOHOL SPONSORSHIP IN SPORT EVENTS ON CHILDREN’S ATTITUDE
The topic of the influence and the relationship between alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption by youth and children was raised by many scientists and researchers, for example: by American Academy of Family Physicians (2004); Bridget K., Louise A. Baur, Adrian E. Bauman and Lesley King (2011); Conolly G.M., S. Casswell, J. Zhang and P.A. Silva (1994); Grube J. and Wallack L. (1994); Mason, K (2005); McDaniel S. and Heald G. (2000) and many other. According to them, advertising and sports sponsorship of alcohol brands have a negative impact on young people and leads to increase of alcohol consumption by children and adolescents.
In considering this question we must first study the problem of the influence of advertising on modern people, and especially on children.
Advertising today is not only a mean of informing about the new brand, consumer properties of goods, etc., but also an integral part of mass culture. According to Fennis Bob M., Stroebe W. (2010), advertising is constantly changing the ways of influencing behavior of individuals and groups of people. Advertising intervenes in human life, influencing it both at the conscious and unconscious levels. However, it goes beyond the commercial interests of consumers and imposes certain standards, life values, social ideas and concepts. Supporters point out effectiveness of advertising, as well argue that it promotes economic development, while its critics highlight the numerous weaknesses. (Fennis Bob M.& Stroebe W, 2010)
In modern society, the effect of advertising on people’s behavior is underestimated. Meanwhile, a similar manipulation of people’s minds can be very dangerous. For example, the risk of advertising lies in the fact that people buy not only useless products, but harmful: as advertising of fast food and sugary products has led to an increase in cases of obesity, especially among children; advertising of beer has led to the emergence of beer alcoholism, which affects mostly adolescents and young adults; advertising of medical products inevitably leads to self and uncontrolled use of chemicals, bringing not only benefit but harm; advertising of cigarettes leads to popularity of smoking among young people.
In today’s society the study of advertising in terms of psychology is important, while advertising has become part of everyday culture and is one of the indicators of social development. Here comes the understanding that advertising is not only related to commercial interests, but also to the formation of certain values, ideas and standards in consumers.
Fennis Bob M.and Stroebe W. (2010) identify four components of the psychological effects of advertising:
1) cognitive – acquisition of new information through the processes of information processing: sensation, perception, attention, associative thinking, memory;
2) affective – emotional attitude formation, impelling desire, experience
3) regulatory – motivation to action
4) communicative (integration processes in the information communication and activity, exchange, etc.).
There are several types of advertising on television, such as commercials, slogan or logo placement of an advertiser on the screen, as well as sponsorship of sports games and TV shows, etc.
Some authors draw attention to the ethics of advertising. In particular, Fennis Bob M. and Stroebe Wolfgang note that multiple repetition of advertising can create a depressed mental state of the viewers. If we consider also the general psychological background of the television, which brings an imbalance in the social and interpersonal relationships of people, influences their mental processes, behavior, it is no exaggeration to say that advertising, in fact, forms psyche of modern society. (Fennis B.M. & Stroebe W. 2010)
Particularly great impact has advertising on children psyche, as children, compared to adults, are unable to effectively oppose such an impact on their views and moral criteria. Television advertising strongly influences a child’s mind, playing on children’s emotions. According to Clay R. (2009), the main function of television advertising is to prepare children for their main occupation in life – to be “qualified consumers”. By the age specifics of children, the greatest impact have: psychological infection (the result of exposure to the emotional sphere of the individual), imitation (assignment seen behavior) and suggestion. In this case, in terms of psychological protection, children, because of their age are not able to withstand the effects of television advertising, using their own views and believes. (Gunter & Oats 2005)
One of the approaches to the ethical requirements for advertising, particularly for children, is its regulation. For example, most European consumers’ associations call for strict limitation of commercial activity addressed to children. Of the 15 states-members of the European Union, only four (France, Ireland, Netherlands and UK) do not considered advertising addressed to children as harmful. (Clay R. 2000)
The most prevalent approach around the world is to establish prohibitions and restrictions on advertising of alcohol and tobacco. According to the European experience, certain restrictions are necessary. However, the level of regulation of advertising addressed to children in every country is different. For example, in Greece there is a prohibition on advertising of toys from 7:00 to 22:00, in addition, advertising of war toys is completely banned. And in some European countries is prohibited sponsorship of children’s programs, advertising for children under 12 years old, and advertising for 5 minutes before and after the broadcast of programs for children. (Gunter & Oats 2005; Clay R. 2000)
Austin E.W., Chen M.J. and Grube J.W. (2006) in their prove the negative effect of alcohol advertising on children and argue that it is necessary to protect children from such advertising. The authors argue that the reaction of children to advertising can greatly differ from the reactions of adults. If adults do not find advertised product in the store, they quickly forget about it, but children begin to demand the purchase of the advertised products. And it is very difficult to explain to young children the reason why they can not have all that products from advertising. (Fox 1996)
McKenzie D. (2000) considers the scope of advertising and promotion of alcohol, and the extent of its impact, especially on young people. Promotion of alcohol itself is a huge business that continues to grow through the various channels of communication, and includes not only advertising, but also other promotion activities. Alcoholic beverages are advertised through:
– traditional broadcast media (such as television and radio)
– traditional media (such as print media, billboards and
branded products)
– sponsorship of cultural and sport events
– indirect advertising
– by direct marketing techniques with the use of technologies such as the Internet, SMS-messages.
An important role in shaping the interest of young people to alcohol plays entertainment industry, as alcohol is present in films, TV shows, popular hits and other forms of mass culture. Both the content of the advertising of alcoholic beverages, and the extent of its impact are of great importance for young people which are particularly susceptible to the harmful effects of alcohol. The interest of young people to the particular aspects of advertising, such as humor, animation and popular music, contributes significantly to the overall effect of these materials.
Especially it should be said about the sports events that are sponsored by alcoholic brands. This type of advertising of alcohol is particularly negative, as sport is important for young people and aims to promote a healthy lifestyle that has nothing to do with alcohol. Thus, the society is trying in every way to motivate young people to engage in sports, but alcohol ads on the contrary leads to negative consequences. This was proved by McDaniel S. and Mason D. (1999); Bridget K., Louise A. Baur, Bauman AE and King L. (2011); McKenzie D.(2000); Moreau E., E.W. Austin and C. Knaus (2000) and others.
Young people began to associate sport and healthy lifestyle with alcohol (even if it is soft drinks and beer). For example, beer is always consumed during football matches. As a result, many young people and teenagers think of beer as a harmless low-alcohol beverage that does not cause dependence. However, beer is not harmless, and is especially harmful to young people and teenagers. But many scientists stress the fact that beer is an alcohol that has harmful effect on the body, and harmfulness is assessed not by the quantity of alcohol in one bottle, and the consequences of the use of the product.
Moreau E., E.W. Austin and C. Knaus (2000) argue that alcohol sponsorship of sports games and competitions has led to the fact that alcohol is seen by youth as an essential attribute of recreation and sports. The authors emphasize the negative consequences of alcohol consumption for a healthy person who is engaged in sports. That is why sports and alcohol are incompatible concepts. Despite this, beer producers still focus on the fact that their product is low alcohol, so it is harmless, or even create stories about the healing properties of this or that brand of beer. As a result of advertising, we can observe the growth of consumption of beer by youth, including during sports games. It’s no secret that beer can act as a drug causing aggression, and an example of this are soccer fans who very often organize riots and fighting in the streets. It is necessary to stress that alcohol is the most aggressive of the drugs, and beer drinking is characterized by cruelty, when people after drinking beer can commit vandalism, fights, murders and robberies.
Thus, alcohol advertising and alcohol sponsorship of sports events is the reason for the increase in alcohol consumption, especially of beer, by children, adolescents and youth. That is why nowadays in many countries there is a problem of alcohol abuse among youth and adolescents that take massive scale. According to empirical studies and consumer studies, alcohol sponsorship has a great impact on youth attitude to alcohol consumption, it motivates and encourages them to buy and drink alcohol (including beer). Also studies have shown that adults and teenagers drink more alcohol when under the influence of advertising. (Bridget K. et al. 2011)
Advertising of alcohol in any form has a negative impact on teenagers and young people, motivating them to buy and consume alcoholic beverages. Alcohol advertising in magazines and in the supermarkets, at concerts and sporting events have a strong influence on the psyche of teenagers. Such conclusions were made by American scientists, who surveyed 3111 adolescents from South Dakota. The study conducted nonprofit Rand Health supported by the National Institute on Alcoholism and Alcohol Abuse. The results showed that, in overall, advertising plays a crucial role in shaping consumer preferences among young people, and also serves as a means of manipulating the consciousness of children (American Academy of Family Physicians 2004)
