Research carrying an Oxford or Harvard name is not thereby unquestionable, and it is not thereby telling the whole story.

A paid social media campaign put a piece of alcohol research into people’s feeds wrapped in the credibility of a famous university name. That is worth pausing on — not because prestigious institutions cannot produce good work, but because who paid for the study, and who paid for the promotion, are separate questions from where the letterhead comes from, and only the letterhead is visible in a sponsored post.

The tobacco playbook

In SAMNET’s view this is how the industry advances its global interests while the harms go unmentioned — and it is exactly how the tobacco industry operated one or two generations ago.

The vocabulary that gets amplified: freedom, rights, choice, the economy, jobs, sponsorship, responsible use.

The vocabulary that does not: deaths, addiction, healthcare costs, gender-based violence, the spread of STIs, road accidents, workplace accidents and losses, domestic and child abuse, criminality, fraud and corruption, the impact on education.

What follows from it

We need to invest equally in research and in messaging if we are to change South Africa’s — and Africa’s — unhealthy relationship with alcohol. Duties and taxes are only one of the measures available to reduce harm. That the industry is spending on this kind of promotion at all should tell us it is feeling the pressure.

• The sponsored Facebook promotion in question.
• DG Murray Trust on the need for alcohol harm reduction measures in South Africa.

Related

Why and How to Complain About Alcohol Advertising · SAMRC: 60% of Women Killed Are Killed by Intimate Partners · Knowing Our Laws

Shared by the South African Muslim Network (SAMNET) in the interest of stronger legislation, enforcement and controls on alcohol in South Africa.