An English barbershop owner and his son "embarked on a massive" battle to outbid Thai beer Chang as the front-of-jersey sponsor of their local football team, according to Susan Goldstein of THE CONVERSATION. In what they call the #OutbidChang campaign they "started a crowd fund" to stop Everton from using the beer as its sponsor. Everton is the last football team in the EPL to be funded by an alcohol company.
The duo argues that alcohol sponsorship fuels alcohol harm to children and that in the U.K. children "are more familiar with alcohol brands than with brands of biscuits." The campaign is being supported by BigAlcohol.Exposed -- "a global network of non-governmental organisations dedicated to exposing the truth about the unethical business methods of the alcohol industry" (THE CONVERSATION, 6/1).
ANOTHER FRONT: THE SHOUT's Deborah Jackson wrote the Brewers Association of Australia and New Zealand "issued a response" to St. Vincent's Health Australia's call to ban alcohol sponsorship in sport. In a statement, Brewers Association Exec Dir Tim Reardon said, "Sport sponsorship is about influencing brand preference at a time when the target audience is usually enjoying the product. Globally, research has consistently found that marketing has either no or, at worst, very modest effects on overall alcohol consumption. Brewers in Australia sponsor sports because the primary audience of sport is adult males. ... Sports sponsorship provides funding to thousands of sporting teams across the country. While much of the attention is on the professional codes, more than 20,500 local sporting teams rely on the local pub or hotel to operate" (THE SHOUT, 6/1).
