Alcohol Marketing and the LGBT+ Community
Research has shown that the LGBT+ community experience ‘strikingly higher rates of alcohol use than their heterosexual peers’.
LGBT+ people face challenges and circumstances that cisgender and straight people don’t necessarily have to contend with. This can impact on the way some LGBT+ people use alcohol and drugs.
Other research has pointed to the social context of LGBT+ alcohol use, with bars and clubs still among the most common safe social spaces for the community.
A recent scoping review by Glasgow Caledonian University exposed a complex web of alcohol marketing targeting LGBT+ people on multiple fronts
It said “multifaceted marketing of alcohol saturates LGBT+ communities.”
The review found that Big Alcohol positions itself as an LGBT+ ally, forging public-facing personae of solidarity and acceptance.
LGBT Voices
LGBT+ people themselves recognise that alcohol companies actively target their community. In a recent report, several members of the LGBT+ community in Scotland spoke about how they regularly encounter alcohol marketing and advertising at LGBT+ venues and events – especially at Pride events.
Members of the community have told us that they find attempts by alcohol companies to position themselves as community allies superficial and even exploitative.
“I feel like we [the LGBT+ Community] are conditioned to see any part of society accepting us as a good thing and as progress. Sometimes my first reaction to seeing [rainbows on products] is to think that it’s nice and inclusive… But when you think about it, their only interest is money, and their target is that whole group.”
They felt that alcohol marketing which appropriated iconography associated with LGBT+ rights movements was particularly inappropriate given the increased alcohol harm experienced by the community.
Community members expressed support for comprehensive alcohol marketing restrictions and a greater level of awareness and critical appraisal of alcohol companies involvement with LGBT+ events.
Read our report on the LGBT+ Community’s Views on Alcohol Marketing
