Under the influence: System-level effects of alcohol industry-funded health information organizations

Nason Maani, May Ci Van Schalkwyk, Mark Petticrew*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalReview articlepeer-review

Abstract

There is now an established body of evidence that the alcohol industry seeks to obstruct public health policies that could affect the availability, affordability or marketing of alcohol. In parallel, the alcohol industry is active in funding corporate social responsibility initiatives, with a particular focus on 'responsible drinking' campaigns, often facilitated by national-level charities established and/or funded by the alcohol industry and associated organizations. While evidence continues to grow regarding biases in the content produced by such health information organizations, they remain active in partnerships with government health departments on national health promotion campaigns and provide a range of health-related information to the public, community organizations and schools. To understand the implications of such access for policymakers, researchers and the public, there is a need to consider the wider, system-level influences of such organizations and their place in wider alcohol industry strategies. In this article, we describe evolving evidence of the direct and indirect strategic effects of such organizations and demonstrate how they serve key roles in the alcohol industry through their existence, content, partnerships and public profiles. We end by considering the implications for how we conceptualize charities established or funded (entirely or partly) by harmful commodity industries, and to what extent current conflicts of interest guidelines are sufficiently effective.

Original languageEnglish
Article numberdaad167
JournalHealth Promotion International
Volume38
Issue number6
Early online date14 Dec 2023
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2023

Keywords / Materials (for Non-textual outputs)

  • alcohol
  • commercial determinants of health
  • documentary analysis
  • policy analysis
  • public-private partnerships

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