Alcohol Advertisements in Cinemas

[uncleglen]

I have not been to the cinema for some time and went to see a 15 rated film. During the Pearl and Dean advertisements there were two for alcohol.How inappropriate is that? One advertisement was for Stella and the other for Jack Daniels. There can be no justification for showing these advertisements other than at 18 rated shows

[Marmora Man]

Uncle Ben - have your children or relatives under the age of 18 never, ever, seen adults drinking alcohol? Better to see drinking of alcohol in a social setting and responsible fashion than to encounter it, as a totally new experience at the age of 18.

[????]

Fag adverts on cbeebies then MM?

[Jeremy]

Why single out cinema advertising? Rather than TV, printed media, billboards, etc?

[uncleglen]

Because the cinema is right in your face, loud, up close, and personal

[Marmora Man]

uncleglen Wrote:

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> Because the cinema is right in your face, loud, up

> close, and personal

and visiting the cinema is a choice - whereas billboards aren't.

[Marmora Man]

???? Wrote:

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> Fag adverts on cbeebies then MM?

Not what I' proposing. Nevertheless, children do see smokers in their own households, in the street and - shock horror, on TV and in films.

Life cannot be sanitised to the nth degree.

[Burbage]

To an extent, I agree. Though mainly to the extent that I don't see why I should pay good money to watch ads. But according to the BBFC 15-certificate films can contain:

strong violence

frequent strong language (eg 'f***') [the occasional c*** is also permitted, presumably for artistic reasons]

portrayals of sexual activity

strong verbal references to sex

sexual nudity

brief scenes of sexual violence or verbal references to sexual violence

discriminatory language or behaviour

drug taking

So the ads might be the least of your worries.

[Jeremy]

uncleglen, everyone's opinion is valid of course, but I tend to disagree. Children and teenagers see adults drinking alcohol all the time, they already see it as the standard way for adults to socialise, relax, celebrate, etc. They see drinking as a sign of being a grown-up... alcohol's role in society is surely a far stronger lure than advertising could ever be.

Advertising may affect the choice of brand, but in my opinion is unlikely to be the cause of underage drinking.

[uncleglen]

Oh dear Burbage- that bad- no wonder most of our 15 films are classified as 18 in Eire

[StraferJack]

Is that really true?

[uncleglen]

Sorry I should have said 'some' of our 15 classifications- including Brokeback Mountain

[uncleglen]

The Ciderhouse Rules was a 12 here and an 18 in Eire.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Film_censorship_in_the_Republic_of_Ireland makes interesting reading

[*Bob*]

Brokeback Mountain, Cider House Rules... so basically if a film has themes such as abortion or homosexuality - it's possible the Irish film censor might possibly come down a little harder with the certification.

Hardly a revelation!

As for the advertising aspect: as long as the individuals drinking in the commercials are clearly over 18 and - let's say - sitting in a pub (as opposed to - let's say - clearly 15 and sitting on a swing in the park) then I think that's fine. The film that follows could quite easily feature exploding bodies etc - so one would hope that if younger viewers are determined to be capable of handling that then one would hope they are also capable of handling seeing a man in a pub up on the screen without becoming alcoholic in the making.

In any case I suspect most fifteen year-olds don't need to see an advertisement for any encouragement to drink. They're already on the pop.. unless things have changed significantly over the last 25 years.

[Dopamine1979]

It often surprises me how early in the day you will see adverts for alcohol on television especially on the weekends.

[uncleglen]

Psychologists are employed to tailor advertisements to a target audience- it's one thing to see your family etc. smoking and drinking then you can have a meaningful discussion about it- hopefully- but teenagers are impressionable and image conscious and maybe showing these adverts in the cinema at 15 rated films has contributed to an increase in under age boozing.

[Cassius]

In ED with the number of child friendly pubs/beergardens, I expect there are a lot of children who grow up knowing that Mummy and Daddy, and their friends, and the people at the next table, don't just drink pop and don't need to wait until they can get into a 15 film (probably that's about the age of 12) to see the hard stuff being imbibed.

[minder]

I agree with you uncleglen. The last time I went to the cinema with my youngest (nearly 15) I came away with a feeling that the adverts had more of an effect on me (i.e. worrying about drinking and betting adverts) rather than the film and that was a year or so ago! My three now only go to the cinema with their friends and who knows what they are watching in the breaks?

[Lin Henden]

What I detest is the half an hour of my life wasted in the cinema waiting for the film being forced to experience adverts and trailers. The other thing is the smoking clubs outside pub doorways which children are walking past. At least when smoking was done inside pubs you didn't have to suffer walking through clouds of smoke when you passed a pub.

[B&G]

Alcohol ads can be shown so long as no more than 25% of the audience is under 18. It doesn't matter that it was a 15, the film would have been demographically profiled to make sure this was the case. Very few slip through the net.

[Mick Mac]

Lin Henden Wrote:

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>

At

> least when smoking was done inside pubs you didn't

> have to suffer walking through clouds of smoke

> when you passed a pub.

Why should drinkers be subjected to smoke in a confined space when noone else is?

In Cape Town I went to a pub and it allowed smoking inside but not outside the pub. I presume this was because most people were outside in the posh sun drenched seating rather than a rather empty inside but it would not have been good for the people working behind the bar, which was the main reason for Ireland banning smoking in pubs when it made that decision some years ago.