It’s World Cup season – avid fans are up at all hours to catch a match, gathering together or watching online.
It’s a moment that fosters community and inspires passion and joy.
But with major alcohol sponsors including Diageo and Heineken, it’s also stacked with alcohol ads.
Across codes, sports promotion is inseparable from addictive and harmful products like alcohol.
The alcohol industry has made a deliberate and calculated choice to ingrain its products in Australia’s beloved sporting culture.
Alcohol ads are on television ad breaks, jerseys, stadiums and marketed as a mainstay of any sport experience whether celebrating or commiserating.
Evidence shows that advertising influences alcohol use. When children are exposed to alcohol ads, they are more likely to start drinking earlier and go on to drink at high-risk levels later in life.
Alcohol use also intensifies and exacerbates domestic, family and sexual violence. It is a major contributing factor to domestic and family violence across the country, involved in up to half of police-reported incidents.
Sports shape our culture. When harmful ideas about masculinity, alcohol and aggression are reinforced through this influence, violence becomes easier to excuse, dismiss, and perpetuate.
Ending alcohol ads on TV during sport
Actor and Lived Experience Advisor Kym Valentine has been on our television screens for more than 40 years. She knows first-hand the power television has to create norms and forge associations that stay with us for a lifetime.
“When we connect the things we value most to a product that is one of the leading causes of harm and death, we risk turning our greatest vice into a cultural virtue,” she said.
“In Australia, where televised sport is a national religion, the link between the game we love and alcohol is deeply engrained.”
Alcohol ads cannot be shown on TV most times that children are likely watching, with one glaring exception – sport.
Generally, alcohol ads can only be aired from 8.30pm to 5am or 12pm – 3pm on school days.
However, a loophole in the rules means alcohol ads can be shown anytime on weekends and public holidays during a sports broadcast. Even when thousands of children are watching.
This happens because the rules that decide when and how alcohol ads appear on free‑to‑air TV are written by the commercial broadcasters who profit from them — channels Seven, Nine, Ten and WIN.
When the rules are written by the industry that make money from them, they prioritise their bottom line not the community’s wellbeing. The status quo has left us with flimsy regulation that fails to safeguard the community.
Australia’s media regulator, the Australian Communications and Media Authority (ACMA) has the power – and responsiblity – to change this and prevent thousands of children being exposed to alcohol ads every weekend.
ACMA is currently reviewing the rules around alcohol ads on TV. It has received dozens of submissions from public health, children and family violence organisations, and community members who want to see change.
If ACMA agrees that the current system isn’t safeguarding the community, it can take regulation back into its own hands by creating what is called a ‘program standard’, rather than letting the industry continue to set their own rules.
ACMA has a responsibility to the community it serves to ensure the rules around alcohol ads on TV put health and wellbeing first.
It’s a simple, straightforward step that would mean we can all watch sport on TV without harmful ads.
Overwhelming community support
The majority of Australians want to see this change. Recent polling found 3 in 4 people want to see less alcohol ads on TV and 4 in 5 believe there should be restrictions on alcohol ads during times children are watching, including sport.
The community have raised concerns in calling for change:
- “Alcohol free sporting events should be the norm, not the exception.” – 70-year-old, Victoria
- “Gambling and alcohol advertising have no place in major events and sports.” – 56-year-old, NSW
- “Given how harmful it is to health and wellbeing, it should be treated in a similar way to tobacco products.” – 73-year-old, NSW
- “Alcohol should not be normalised nor promoted due to the violence it promotes.” – 18-year-old, Queensland
- “I do not want my child to be confronted by such adverts and especially not at family orientated sports events. It should be discouraged completely.” – 54-year-old, Victoria
William Spaul has long advocated to end alcohol ads on TV during sport for the wellbeing of his son, Robin who is an avid tennis player and loves to sport on TV. on TV.
William is hopeful that ACMA will make the decision to safeguard Robin, and all children, from harmful alcohol ads during sport.
“Children deserve better and closing the loophole will protect children both now and for decades to come,” he said.
Addressing advertising to reduce gender-based violence
Alcohol advertising during sports increases harm in many ways.
In 2024, a panel of experts were appointed by the federal government to determine how to prevent gender-based violence. The panel’s recommendations included limits on alcohol ads, particularly during sport.
Reducing alcohol ads and breaking the intrinsic link between sport and alcohol use will also help to reduce harm to women and children experiencing violence.
This is because of the harmful culture that is perpetuated by alcohol being tied so closely to sport.
Rates of domestic and family violence increase by 40% on State of Origin game night and 20% during the AFL grand final.
The federal government has an important role to play in recognising this link and taking action to safeguard the community.
If you or someone you know needs support, please call Lifeline 13 11 14, the National 24/7 Alcohol and Other Drugs Hotline 1800 250 015 or 1800RESPECT 1800 737 732.
