Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19?
Abstract Objective: Preliminary reports suggested that liquor retailers used COVID‐19 to promote alcohol through sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram. To further understand the advertising practices during this period, we aimed to determine whether packaged liquor retailers increased their post...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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Elsevier
2021-08-01
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| Series: | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.13118 |
| _version_ | 1797704971653742592 |
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| author | Daniel T. Winter Brennan Geiger Kirsten Morley James Conigrave Paul S. Haber Benjamin C. Riordan |
| author_facet | Daniel T. Winter Brennan Geiger Kirsten Morley James Conigrave Paul S. Haber Benjamin C. Riordan |
| author_sort | Daniel T. Winter |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Abstract Objective: Preliminary reports suggested that liquor retailers used COVID‐19 to promote alcohol through sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram. To further understand the advertising practices during this period, we aimed to determine whether packaged liquor retailers increased their posts during COVID‐19 or used COVID‐19 to promote alcohol on Twitter. Methods: ‘Tweets’ (Twitter posts) from all packaged liquor retailers in NSW written since 2018 were collected. Tweets written during the first COVID‐19 lockdown period were coded for: references of COVID‐19, types of marketing message, use of links to online stores and use of an alcohol‐related ‘meme’. Results: There was no evidence of increased tweet frequency, however, some COVID‐specific alcohol advertising was detected that leveraged the pandemic (4.0%) or referencing the pandemic without explicitly promoting alcohol (12.0%). The most popular market messages used in the tweets were encouraging alcohol use (15.4%) and easy access to alcohol at home (9.5%). Conclusions: At least on Twitter, there was no marked increase in posts from packaged liquor retailers in NSW and only some tweets used COVID‐19 to promote alcohol. Implications for public health: The use of COVID‐specific alcohol marketing on social media raises important considerations for legislative and regulatory requirements, particularly during major health events such as a pandemic. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-12T05:28:20Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-179fcc31e5c043ecb315841e61f8dc88 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1326-0200 1753-6405 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-12T05:28:20Z |
| publishDate | 2021-08-01 |
| publisher | Elsevier |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health |
| spelling | doaj.art-179fcc31e5c043ecb315841e61f8dc882023-09-03T07:03:43ZengElsevierAustralian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health1326-02001753-64052021-08-0145439139310.1111/1753-6405.13118Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19?Daniel T. Winter0Brennan Geiger1Kirsten Morley2James Conigrave3Paul S. Haber4Benjamin C. Riordan5Specialty of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney New South WalesSpecialty of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney New South WalesSpecialty of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney New South WalesSpecialty of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney New South WalesSpecialty of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney New South WalesSpecialty of Addiction Medicine, Central Clinical School, Faculty of Medicine and Health The University of Sydney New South WalesAbstract Objective: Preliminary reports suggested that liquor retailers used COVID‐19 to promote alcohol through sponsored posts on Facebook and Instagram. To further understand the advertising practices during this period, we aimed to determine whether packaged liquor retailers increased their posts during COVID‐19 or used COVID‐19 to promote alcohol on Twitter. Methods: ‘Tweets’ (Twitter posts) from all packaged liquor retailers in NSW written since 2018 were collected. Tweets written during the first COVID‐19 lockdown period were coded for: references of COVID‐19, types of marketing message, use of links to online stores and use of an alcohol‐related ‘meme’. Results: There was no evidence of increased tweet frequency, however, some COVID‐specific alcohol advertising was detected that leveraged the pandemic (4.0%) or referencing the pandemic without explicitly promoting alcohol (12.0%). The most popular market messages used in the tweets were encouraging alcohol use (15.4%) and easy access to alcohol at home (9.5%). Conclusions: At least on Twitter, there was no marked increase in posts from packaged liquor retailers in NSW and only some tweets used COVID‐19 to promote alcohol. Implications for public health: The use of COVID‐specific alcohol marketing on social media raises important considerations for legislative and regulatory requirements, particularly during major health events such as a pandemic.https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.13118COVID‐19alcoholpackaged liquor retailersbottle shopsadvertisingTwitter |
| spellingShingle | Daniel T. Winter Brennan Geiger Kirsten Morley James Conigrave Paul S. Haber Benjamin C. Riordan Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19? Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health COVID‐19 alcohol packaged liquor retailers bottle shops advertising |
| title | Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19? |
| title_full | Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19? |
| title_fullStr | Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19? |
| title_full_unstemmed | Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19? |
| title_short | Are bottle shops using Twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during COVID‐19? |
| title_sort | are bottle shops using twitter to increase advertising or encourage drinking during covid 19 |
| topic | COVID‐19 alcohol packaged liquor retailers bottle shops advertising |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1111/1753-6405.13118 |
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