The advertising of alcohol during sporting events is likely having long-lasting effects on fans' drinking attitudes, an international study revealed on Tuesday.
Researchers from the University of Grenoble in France and Australia's Monash University found that attitudes can be subconsciously changed not just to the brand of alcohol advertised but towards the consumption of alcohol in general.
Alcohol accounts for about 20 percent of sports sponsorships worldwide, despite evidence that it contributes to hazardous drinking attitudes and is particularly influential on younger viewers.
"What we showed is that alcohol advertising and sponsorship not only send a message directly encouraging people to drink, but tends to implicitly and/or unconsciously associate a product, like beer, within a specific context of going to the football or watching a sports match on television," study co-author, Prof. Kerry O'Brien, from Monash University's School of Social Sciences said.
To conduct the study, 109 students from France were shown 10-minute clips of rugby matches featuring one of three sponsors -- a well-known beer, a lesser known beer and a non-alcohol related product.
The students were given a task to complete while they watched the clips meaning their entire attention did not even have to be on the game or advertising to be affected by it.
"We found evidence to suggest that the more popular the brand of alcohol, the greater the influence in changes to participants' drinking attitudes," lead author Dr. Oulmann Zerhouni said.
"This wasn't the case when the alcohol brand was relatively unknown, or if the sponsorship was unrelated to alcohol, in this case, motor oil."
The authors of the study have flagged serious concerns about their results, particularly in relation to the hundreds of thousands of children who are exposed to alcohol advertising during sports marches.
