Swedes plan total ban on ‘demon drink’ ads

Press, 30 November 1978, Page 16

Swedes plan total ban on ‘demon drink’ ads

By COLLN NARBROUGH in Stockholm

Swedish law sets few limits on the freedoms of either the press or the pornographer, but new legislation will next year outlaw all advertising for liquor, wines and heavy gravity beers. The new law will also impose rigid restraints on toba c co advertisements, though falling short of a ban.

Critics of the anti-liquor legislation, approved by a large majority in the Riksdag (Parliament) this month, say it is a breach of traditional liberties, especially the right of the consumer to study information about legally saleable products. Some people see the bill as an attack on the right of the sellers to display their wares. They fear this could be the forerunner of wider restrictions on advertising, nominally on social and health grounds, but with the underlying goal of moving Sweden away from consumerism towards an authoritarian. moralistic, centrally-controlled society. What could come next on

the banned list? Sugar and fat, or the killer motor car perhaps? The advertising ban starts on July I, 1979 (after the midsummer night festivities), and reflects a nagging Swedish preoccupation with alcohol. Not that the average Swede drinks much compared to the average Dane. German or Briton. But history has given alcohol a major role in Sweden. The prohibitionists are still heavily over-represented politically and it was prohibitionism that brought the Social Democrats to power in 1932, where they stayed for almost half a century. Generations of Swedish school children have been forced to write anti-liquor essays in which they clearly identify demon drink. All alcohol sales, except very light grade beers, are controlled by a State monopoly, “System Bolaget,” that performs the schizophrenic function of retailing drink while telling people loudly that it’s bad for them. The impact of the new ban is difficult to gauge. It

will take an important chunk of advertising revenue away from newspapers and magazines. (Sweden has no commercial television.) There is also concern for State income if the ban causes a sudden drop in the highly taxed sale of drink. Neighbouring Norway lost an estimated $6O million in tax revenues through a sixweek strike at the State liquor monopoly.

Advocates of the ban are undisturbed by such fears. They argue that Swedes know where to get their drink and certainly need no lavish or forceful advertising to tell them what to buy. It has been demonstrated that the country’s top selling brands of spirits are often the ones that are not publicised at all, probably selling on the strength of their ratio of alcohol content to price.

Swedes will still find an excellent range of liquor in the State monopoly shops. Perhaps it will not be so bad at all. 0.F.N.5.. Copyright.