“The law must adapt to changing practices,” claims the association Addictions France, which recalls that the Evin law prohibits the promotion of alcohol to minors.
To reach a young audience, manufacturers rely on influencers to “to make people forget that content, apparently anecdotal, is indeed an advertisement”, explains the association. According to her, this “Influencer marketing has become in a few years an essential lever of corporate communication strategies”.
Addictions France cites the example of the wine group Gérard Bertrand, which called on an influencer followed by 500,000 subscribers to associate its “Côte des Roses” cuvée with a glamorous universe. She also points to beer giant Carlsberg, which partners with influencers on the ski slopes. “to integrate beer into this way of life shared by thousands of Internet users, including minors”.
A law to enforce the law
The association ensures that the wine sector “does not hide wanting to seduce young people to revive wine consumption, even if it means betting on TikTok” and that the Pernod Ricard group affirmed “use influencers with at least 70% major followers, so 30% minors”. Addictions France reminds that at least “68% of teenagers use social networks” and are “more likely to consume alcohol when the influencers they follow promote it”.
If manufacturers remind that influencers must respect the Evin law, they know “that it is impossible to control all the advertisements issued by influencers”, says the association. Between October 2021 and February 2023, more than 7,000 pieces of content were observed by Addictions France and the Avenir Santé association. According to Addictions France, representatives of the alcohol sectors “fail to point out that in the name of protecting the health of minors, the distribution of alcohol advertisements on media popular with young people, such as cinema and television, has simply been prohibited by the Evin law”.
“It is inconceivable that the alcohol industry relies on capturing a minor public to develop its turnover, given the risks of consumption at this age.
Addiction Franceat franceinfo
“The law must adapt to changing practices”, Addictions France alert. She invites MEPs to take this public health issue head on and ban the promotion of alcohol by influencers. The law on influencers has just arrived in debate in the National Assembly. Two amendments have been tabled to ban the promotion of alcohol by influencers. If this prohibition measure was not introduced directly into the text of the law, it is because the alcoholics would have threatened to have the text unraveled by the Constitutional Council, explains to franceinfo one of the rapporteurs of the proposal for law. It would therefore have been necessary, according to him, to give up under the pressure of the alcoholics and the other deputies. “sensitive to the arguments of the industry”. The text, however, specifies in black and white that the Evin law applies to influencers.
When the deputy rapporteur of the influencers law @StephaneVojetta admits having had to give up trying to ban the promotion of #brands of alcohol by #influencers under pressure from alcoholics and other MPs “sensitive to industry arguments” ⬇️ https://t.co/BJ54XnZlYM
— Marie Dupin (@mdups) March 29, 2023