Alcohol Concern

Alcohol Concern is a fake-charity (#291705) that in the financial year ending 2011, received most of its £1.22M funds from the taxpayer.

Department of Health: £300,000

Welsh Assembly Government: £250,000

Consultancy Fees: £377,349

It also sucked £142,084 out of the Big Lottery Fund

Its stated purpose is:

The national charity on alcohol misuse for England and Wales, campaigning for effective alcohol policy and improved services for people whose lives are affected by alcohol-related problems.

So, a charity, funded by government, to lobby government.

Loss of government funding

It was announced in October of 2011 that the core funding for Alcohol Concern of some £300,000(2011)-£400,000(2010) from the Department of Health was going to be withdrawn, with some rather unfortunate repercussions:

The consequence is that Alcohol Concern has had to sell its offices and restructure. The main victims of this are Chief Executive Don Shenker, and its full-time fundraiser, who have both had to resign because the charity can no longer afford to pay their salaries.

Some have suggested that this was Government “revenge” for Alcohol Concern walking away from the Industry Alcohol Social Responsibility Deal. I just think it’s a lesson in the hard reality of politics in a recession. If you set your face against public policy, don’t expect Government to give you scarce public money in order to assist you in doing so.

The fact is that Alcohol Concern, and their sister charity in Scotland Alcohol Focus, have hardened their position in relation to the issue of alcohol-related harms and how to reduce them. They’ve moved from promoting responsible drinking to advocating the reduction of alcohol consumption across the whole population – “We all need to drink less” - the Medical Temperance view. This has put them on a collision course with the drinks’ industry, and with a Government at Westminster which is signalling that the industry is part of the solution, not the cause of the problem.

The chief executive of health charity Alcohol Concern, Don Shenker, is stepping down after the group failed to secure sufficient funding.

The charity's board decided to restructure the senior management team after core funding was lost, and cut the chief executive and fundraising director's roles down to part-time.

Shenker, who has been with the organisation for six years has decided to leave in favour of a full-time position elsewhere.

Campaigns

Baby boomers draining NHS resources - 12 Oct 2012

The first ever map of alcohol-related health costs, launched today by Alcohol Concern, reveals that the baby boom generation are the greatest burden on the NHS compared to all other age groups.

The figures reveal the inpatient cost of the 55-74 age group, closely aligned to the baby boom generation, is over ten times greater than the 16-24 age group, often negatively associated with 'binge drinking' and their impact on NHS resources. Furthermore, the baby boom generation inpatient costs are greater than the 16-24 age group inpatient costs plus all alcohol related A&E costs put together.

Gosh! I wonder where they got the numbers from?

The picture across all local authorities is captured in the Alcohol Harm Map, produced by Alcohol Concern, in partnership with Lundbeck Ltd - www.alcoholconcern.couldthisbe.com. The purpose of the map is to reveal the real harm and cost of alcohol at a local level, so that local authorities and local health providers can ensure that alcohol prevention and treatment services are available to those with drinking problems.

This really is a problem!

Oh, hang on...

Alcohol-related admissions are calculated in such a way that if you are unlucky enough, say, to be involved in a fire and admitted to hospital for the treatment of your burns, it will count as 0.38 of an alcohol-related admission – unless you happen to be under 15, when it won’t count at all.

If you drown, it counts as 0.34 of an alcohol-related admission – though most people unlucky enough to drown aren’t admitted to hospital. Getting chilled to the bone (accidental excessive cold) counts for 0.25 of an admission, intentional self-harm to 0.20 per cent of an admission.

These fractions apply whether or not there was any evidence you had been drinking before these disasters befell you.

Of course, much greater contributions to the total are made by conditions such as high blood pressure, which accounted for 383,900 admissions – more than a third of the total. Around a third of admissions for hypertensive diseases in men aged between 25 and 65 are attributed to alcohol, and around a fifth in women. There are far more of these admissions than there are for fires or accidents, so they contribute a huge proportion of the total.

Note that no account is taken of the amount these people actually drink. It is reasonable to suppose that only fairly heavy drinking could do enough damage to require an admission, but in calculating these figures the assumption is made that there is no threshold below which drinking is safe. So a third of all admissions for cardiac arrhythmias, for example, are attributed to drinking, even if the sufferer happens to be a teetotaller.

Lundbeck Ltd is:

...an international pharmaceutical company highly committed to improving the quality of life for people suffering from brain disorders.

Unfortunately, this 'research' (mainly the map) produced a spate of over-enthusiastic headlines, along with lots of hand-wringing, in local media around the country, including - but not limited to:

• Isle of Wight (£6m)
• Cumbria (£20m)
• Cornwall (250 people a day)
• Manchester (£31.9m)
• Leicestershire (£43.8m)
• East Anglia (£85.34m)
• Norwich (£43m)
• Plymouth (£17.2m, 110 people a day)
• Newcastle (Baby boomers cost 12 times binge drinkers)
• Swindon (£11.6m - though this is presented as good since it's 'below average.')

'Young targeted online' - 6 Sep 2012

To promote Alcohol Concern Cymru's 2012 annual conference, Alcohol Concern decided to claim:

Campaigners claim drinks firms are using the internet and social media to evade restrictions on promoting alcohol to young people.

[...] Andrew Misell, manager of Alcohol Concern Cymru, says drinks firms have long responded to restrictions on traditional forms of advertising to reach young people through other means, such as event sponsorship.

Sadly there wasn't enough room in the BBC's report for Mr. Misell to elucidate on which particular research he was using to make such audacious claims. Presuming of course there was any, and not just gut feelings and barrel scraping such as

"Research has shown that alcohol marketing messages are getting through to children and young people well below the legal drinking age," he said.

"We know that youngsters exposed to alcohol marketing are more likely to start using alcohol and have more positive expectations about its effects.

"There needs to be a tougher stance on the rules governing alcohol marketing, including putting an end to alcohol industry sponsorship of sports and music festivals, and generally ensuring that where alcohol advertising is permitted it only reaches an adult audience."

As has been demonstrated elsewhere, research on asking people's opinion is useless - and one presumes it is asking kiddies "do you recognise this can of lager?" and if they say yes, then they are deemed to have been exposed to the evil advertising online.

ASA complaints

Lost - Estrella Beer - 3 Oct 2012

A complaint for an advert for Estrella beer was placed. Described as:

[...] the story of a young male traveller meeting two young women and the three of them exploring a Spanish island.

[...]

The man then approached the two women who were sitting outside a bar drinking Estrella and he showed them a map of the island. The following scenes featured the three characters driving around the island, swimming, sunbathing, on a boat and at a beach party together.

In one scene, the male traveller was shown carrying two bottles of Estrella on the beach.

In another scene, the main character and the dark-haired woman were seen trying hats on in the market and the woman kissed the man briefly on the lips.

In another scene, bottles of Estrella were distributed to a group of friends at a lunch gathering. A further scene showed the male character at a beach party being greeted affectionately by a male party-goer who was holding a bottle of Estrella. The ad ended with the male character being dropped off at the ferry terminal by the two women.

He kissed his finger and planted this affectionately on the dark-haired woman's lips. He walked up the gang plank and took a swig from his bottle of Estrella beer. As he lowered the bottle the story began again.

Alcohol Concern had the following complaints:

1. linked alcohol with sexual activity, sexual success or seduction;

2. implied that alcohol contributed to the male character's popularity; and

3. implied that the success of the holiday depended on the presence of alcohol.

All three complaints were thrown out.

Lost - Bulmers Cider - 19 Sep 2012

showed a man stopping people in the street and inviting them to a concert featuring his friend's band. Some were seen accepting, whilst others declined. The same man was then seen in a bar, where attendees of the concert had gathered. He announced "Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome my friend's band, Plan B!" and his announcement was greeted with cheers from the audience. Plan B was seen walking to the stage and placing a glass of the advertised product down on an amplifier before beginning his performance. Crowd shots showed the audience smiling, dancing and holding glasses of the advertised product aloft.

Alcohol Concern had the following complaint:

1. Alcohol Concern, on behalf of the Youth Alcohol Advertising Council (YAAC), challenged whether the ads implied that Plan B's confidence had been increased and, by implication, his performance improved, by the consumption of alcohol.

While (not unusual in general) the ASA stuck their oar in:

The ASA challenged whether the ads:

2. were irresponsible, because they were likely to appeal strongly to people under 18; and

3. implied that the success of a social occasion depended on the presence or consumption of alcohol.

All three were 'not upheld'.