End invasive marketing practices that harm people living with alcohol addiction
- Feb 4, 2025
- 4 min read
Key takeaways
> Alcohol harms have increased in tandem with the introduction of invasive marketing practices and the rise of online sale and home delivery platforms for alcohol-specific retailers (e.g., Dan Murphy's) as well as retailers that are essential to everyday life (e.g., Coles, Woolworths).
> Alcohol retailers use data from people struggling with alcohol to target them with ads prompting them to buy more. And while online sale and home delivery websites allow people to self exclude from purchasing alcohol online, this requires them to repeatedly complete individual forms across many websites.
> All digital alcohol marketing should be opt-in, and the use of personal data for digital alcohol marketing prohibited. A universal self exclusion register should also be introduced for alcohol (similar to BetStop for online gambling).
Alcohol advertising, harms and availability have increased
While traditional advertising models have shown large audiences the same content, new forms of digital marketing rely on the use of people’s personal data, which provides intimate insights into the lives of every single internet user and is used by advertisers to tailor and target ads to individuals.¹ Alcohol companies have invested heavily in this type of marketing, with global spend on alcohol advertising having grown annually post-pandemic, and especially so in the digital marketing space.² This is concerning because more alcohol advertising leads to more alcohol consumption, which means more alcohol harms.³
Alcohol availability has also expanded to an unprecedented level of pervasiveness and accessibility. With the rise of online sale and home delivery platforms having turned every phone into a bottle shop, alcohol is also more available than ever before. While alcohol exclusive retailers like Dan Murphy’s sell alcohol online, those whose business is not exclusive to alcohol (e.g., Woolworths, Uber Eats, etc.) also sell a wide range of alcohol products.
The tragic result of increased alcohol advertising and availability is that in Victoria, alcohol-related deaths have seen a 165% increase between 2013 and 2022,⁴ while alcohol-related ambulance attendances have risen almost 30% between 2015 and 2023,⁵ placing strain on already-stretched emergency services.
Alcohol retailers target those most at risk
The heaviest drinking 5% of Australians drank more than a third (36%) of all alcohol consumed in 2019, and the heaviest drinking 10% of people drank more than half (54%) of all alcohol consumed.⁶ The alcohol industry is likely aware of this and uses targeted marketing that prompts those experiencing the most alcohol-related harm to drink even more.⁷ Indeed, the online profiling process identifies people experiencing alcohol dependence as ‘high-value’ customers based on behaviours such as frequent alcohol purchases, being near bottle shops or pubs, and words they use in search engines—including if they are seeking support for alcohol dependence—and consequently targets them with more online alcohol ads.⁸
Although alcohol-specific online sale and home delivery platforms allow customers to self exclude (access is blocked as they require a login for purchase), this requires people to repeatedly complete forms across multiple websites which is tedious, time consuming, and poses an administrative barrier to effective self-exclusion. To our knowledge, current self-exclusion arrangements with non-alcohol specific retailers (e.g., Coles, Deliveroo) remove alcohol products from view but do not exclude people from receiving alcohol ads via email, push notification, or otherwise.⁹
Strengthened advertising standards and universal self exclusion needed
We need to protect Australians most at risk from invasive and harmful marketing practices by making all alcohol digital marketing opt-in and prohibiting the use of personal data for targeted marketing purposes. The federal government could ensure a nationally consistent approach through a new Harmful Product Marketing Act, which is supported by more than 130 leading organisations, researchers and academics working in public health, social welfare, and children’s wellbeing.¹⁰
BetStop is the national, universal self-exclusion register for online gambling. Once a person is registered, existing online gambling accounts are closed and they are prevented from opening new ones, placing an online bet, or receiving marketing content from online gambling companies. A similar system for alcohol is needed to prevent people from using online alcohol sale and home delivery websites (those that sell mostly or only alcohol), while allowing them to continue using other online platforms (like Woolworths and Coles online, Uber Eats) with all alcohol products hidden from view and unavailable for purchase.
Recommendations
Make all alcohol digital marketing opt-in and prohibit the use of personal data—namely characteristics, preferences, attitudes or behaviour—to target people with digital marketing, and for sending direct prompts / push notifications promoting alcohol products to a person’s phone or device.
Introduce a universal self-exclusion register for all online platforms selling alcohol products (similar to BetStop (for online gambling).
References
1 VicHealth and FARE, Data-Driven Marketing of Harmful and Addictive Products (Report, November 2025) 7 <https://fare.org.au/wp-content/uploads/FARE_data-driven-harmful-products_FINAL-NOVEMBER-1.pdf>.
2 ‘Big Alcohol Exposed: Big Investments in Advertising Onslaught’, Movendi International (Policy Update, 28 May 2021) <https://movendi.ngo/policy-updates/2021/05/28/big-alcohol-exposed-big-investments-in-advertising-onslaught/>.
3 Susan Gapstur et al, ‘The IARC Perspective on the Effects of Policies on Reducing Alcohol Consumption’ (2025) 392(17) New England Journal of Medicine 1752, 1752.
4 ‘Deaths’, AODstats (Web Page, 31 October 2025) <https://aodstats.org.au/explore-data/deaths/>.
5 ‘Ambulance Attendances’, AODstats (Web Page, 29 August 2024) <https://aodstats.org.au/explore-data/ambulance-attendances/>.
6 Megan Cook, Yvette Mojica-Perez and Sarah Callinan, Distribution of Alcohol Use in Australia (Report, 18 March 2022) 2 <https://fare.org.au/new-report-alcohol-companies-reliant-on-people-who-drink-at-heaviest-levels/>.
7 Lauren Hayden et al, How Alcohol and Gambling Companies Target People Most at Risk With Marketing For Addictive Products on Facebook (Report, November 2024) 4 <https://fare.org.au/wp-content/uploads/FARE_AlcoholandGambling_ Report.pdf>.
8 VicHealth and FARE (n 1) 18.
9 Verbal communication via telephone from Coles customer service representative to Carla Italia, 22 January 2025.
10 ‘Add Your Voice’, Give Us an Ad Break (Web Page, 9 March 2026) <https://giveusanadbreak.org.au/add-your-voice/>.
