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#LGBTCommunityNotCommodity - AFS calls for examples of LGBT+ targeted alcohol marketing

Over the next month, we’re asking members of the LGBTQIA+ community to tell us where and when they see an alcohol advert targeting the LGBTQIA+ community!

Following on from our recent webinar on LGBTQIA+ experiences of the harm caused by alcohol, we want to further explore LGBTQIA+ experiences of targeted alcohol marketing.

A scoping review by Dr David Whiteley and colleagues exposed a complex web of alcohol marketing targeting LGBTQIA+ people on multiple fronts, that multi-faceted marketing of alcohol saturates LGBTQIA+ communities; and that the alcohol industry positions itself as a community ally, forging public facing personae of solidarity and acceptance.

Examples of alcohol advertising might include:

• Any form of Alcohol Industry sponsorship of LGBTQIA+ events – e.g. Pride
• Digital alcohol marketing targeting the LGBTQIA+ community
• Commodification of the Rainbow Flag or LGBTQIA+ culture by alcohol brands - e.g. rainbow washing their logos
• Any form of advert inducing LGBTQIA+ people to drink alcohol – e.g. placards, greetings cards or other encouraging LGBTQIA+ people to drink alcohol

From today until the end of August, if you see an alcohol advert of any kind targeting the LGBTQIA+ community we want you to send it to us!

It’d be helpful if you can tell us briefly where and when you saw the advertisement and how it made you feel or what it made you think.

You can email us at involvement@alcohol-focus-scotland.org.uk

We’d also encourage you to post the image on X (formerly Twitter) with details of where you saw it, when, and how it made you feel using the hashtag #CommunityNotCommodity

Please share this with any LGBTQIA+ networks or friends and family and ask them to join in!

View this short video on Big Alcohol and the LGBTQIA+ community.