Alcohol-free beer advertisers granted momentary reprieve
Domestic beer makers breathed a sigh of relief last week as an amendment broadening the ban on the advertising of alcoholic products was shelved by the Sejm's chairman, Maciej Plazynski.
The amendment, which proposes extending the law banning advertising of products containing at least 1.5% alcohol to non-alcoholic beer, was to be discussed by the Sejm last Wednesday. But Plazynski removed the item from the agenda due to an "accumulation of legislative work," he said.
The proposal, signed by 39 MPs, makes illegal the advertising of products and economic entities that use a name, trademark, graphic design or package that may be associated with an alcoholic beverage, its producer or a distributor. Moreover, the ministers, most of whom belong to Solidarity Election Action (AWS), suggest putting an end to the promotion of not only alcoholic products, but also the producers and distributors of those products. The initiative also seeks to reduce the alcohol content levels that need to be present for a beverage to be defined as alcoholic from the current 1.5% to as low as 0.5%. Such a change would effectively prohibit the advertising of non-alcoholic beer.
As justification for the project, the ministers claim that the current law doesn't sufficiently prevent the advertising of products that contain alcohol. They assert that this law can be circumvented by, for example, advertising non-alcoholic beer with the same name as its alcoholic counterpart. "The suggested changes aim at the elimination of such practices and a respect for the current law," according to a ministerial statement.
Representatives of the Polish beer industry requested that the MPs reject the project in its first reading, pointing out that such a law would penalize domestic beer makers. "It means discrimination against Polish producers of alcoholic beverages," said a press release from Grupa Zywiec spokesman Krzysztof Rut. Because there is no other law of its kind anywhere in Europe, Andrzej Dlugosz, a beer industry press spokesman said the advertising of foreign beer brands on cable TV, the internet and in magazines would give foreign producers an unfair advantage.
The ministers claimed that the advertising of alcoholic beverages, including beer, is socially harmful and not acceptable to most people. They also said that an increase in beer consumption by teenagers over the last few years was the primary reason for the increase of beer industry revenue in the same period.
"We have different data. The majority of society has a positive perception of beer advertisements," said Pawel Sudol, president of brewer Kompania Piwowarska, in an official press release. "The cause of premature initiation into drinking of alcoholic beverages is the ease of purchase of alcohol, not advertising."
According to industry representatives, a ban would be detrimental to both government and ad sector revenue. "The introduction of the ban means a decrease of income of zl. 120 million-zl. 150 million ($27 million-$34 million) for gmina budgets," plus taxes, representatives said, as well as the loss of 25% outdoor advertising revenue from beer ads. Analysts have also warned that if passed, the bill may lead to the lay-off of up to 14,000 people working in alcohol advertising.
