Home » Articles posted by nfitzgerald
Author Archives: nfitzgerald
AcoRN Seminar 1: Alcohol Marketing
The UK-Ireland Alcohol Research Network (AcoRN) would like to invite you to a webinar on Wednesday the 17th of November from 13:00 to 14:30. The webinar will be exploring one of our key research areas: Alcohol Marketing.
In this webinar – hosted on Zoom – we will be joined by Dr. Pat Kenny, Dr. Nathan Critchlow, Vania Filipova, Dr. Richard Purves, and Eunan McKinney to update on the latest evidence on alcohol marketing in Ireland and discuss implications for the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 and future research needs in Ireland.
This is an important and timely webinar given that Ireland will have implemented the latest Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018 controls on some advertising at sport and some event sponsorship the previous week.
Agenda and presentation titles:
- 13:00 – Dr. Pat Kenny (Technological University Dublin) – Opening remarks and update on the Public Health (Alcohol) Act 2018.
- 13:10 – Dr. Nathan Critchlow (University of Stirling) – Examining changes in alcohol marketing awareness one year after initial implementation and during the COVID-19 pandemic: Findings from online repeat cross-sectional surveys.
- 13:25 – Vania Filipova (Technological University Dublin) – The impact of health warnings in alcohol ads: Comparing single vs. multiple vs. graphic health warnings.
- 13:40 – Dr. Richard Purves (University of Stirling) – Examining alcohol marketing during the 2020 Six Nations and implications for the Public Health (Alcohol) Act.
- 13:55 – Short Break (5 minutes).
- 14:00 – Panel Discussion with Dr. Pat Kenny, Dr. Nathan Critchlow, Vania Filipova, Dr. Richard Purves, and Eunan McKinney (Alcohol Action Ireland).
- 14:25 – Closing remarks
This event is for researchers, public health professionals, policymakers, government officials, civil society groups etc. We reserve the right to exclude access to those who have a conflict of interest. A conflict of interest arises if you have received funding/remuneration from an entity substantially funded by, or substantially related to, the alcohol industry in the past 5 years.
If you wish to register for this event, please do so through the Eventbrite page: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/acorn-webinar-alcohol-marketing-research-and-policy-in-ireland-tickets-193346062277
Study Visit Scholarships
We have secured funding to enable four researchers to spend a week working with an established alcohol research team to enable them to develop paper or research ideas, funding applications or to gain specific skills or insight. The visit must be aligned to one of AcoRN’S four policy themes; Availability, Price, Marketing or Politics.
The AcoRN Steering Group will assess applications and award the funding as they see fit to best further the objectives of the network. AcoRN is particularly keen to support several applicants from ROI where there are internationally innovative policy developments and fewer established research groups. Selection will be based on a competitive process whereby researchers and their proposed hosts make the case for how the visit will progress the aims of the network, the researcher’s development and commit to reporting on their visit in writing. Please visit https://alcoholresearch-uk-irl.net/study-visit-scholarships/ for more information and application guidance.
ACORN Launch Report!
The ACORN network kicked off today with a popular and interactive launch event. Suzanne Costello, CEO of the Public Health Institute of Ireland (itself a cross-border body) chaired the event, which was attended online by more than 60 researchers, policy and community colleagues and other stakeholders. Prof. Joe Barry delivered the first plenary presentation, focused on the background to and structure of the network.
All participants had the opportunity then to attend two of the four breakout sessions, each one focused on an ACORN theme. Colin Angus (University of Sheffield) led the Alcohol Pricing research theme, Prof. Niamh Shortt (University of Edinburgh) led the Alcohol Availability research theme, Dr. Pat Kenny (TU Dublin) led the Alcohol Marketing research theme and Dr. Matt Lesch (University of York) led the alcohol policymaking and politics research theme. Breakouts focused on setting the scene for research on each theme, highlighting the relevant work of ACORN members and lively discussions with those present. The discussions were fed back into the main plenary event by rapporteurs for each theme including Dr. Frank Houghton (Limerick IT), Dr. Nathan Critchlow (University of Stirling), Vania Filipova (TU Dublin) and Dr. Joanna Purdy (Institute of Public Health in Ireland).
In the final session, Prof. Niamh Fitzgerald (Institute for Social Marketing & Health, University of Stirling) presented the next steps for the network.
Sign up to ACORN mailing list & launch
We are delighted to announce that ACORN is now open to interested colleagues to sign up.
You can sign up to the ACORN mailing list, and express interest in applying to become a member of ACORN by completing a single form here. ACORN public events, activities and the ACORN mailing list, will be open to researchers, policy stakeholders and interested colleagues.
Membership of ACORN, and access to internal capacity building activities, will be restricted to researchers interested in building or developing UK-Ireland collaborations on alcohol policy research in one of our four priority themes (price, availability, marketing and politics/policymaking). ACORN welcomes interest from both early career and established researchers and from diverse academic disciplines.
ACORN reserves the right to exclude participants from activities where a conflict of interest is evident.
New Study: Ireland’s Public Health Alcohol Act – Spatial Issues & Glaring Gaps
Dr. Frank Houghton, Limerick Institute of Technology, founder member of ACORN, summarises his new study for ACORN.
Ireland’s Public Health (Alcohol) Act of 2018 represents a welcome addition to the ongoing struggle to contain Ireland’s problematic relationship with alcohol. However, crucial deficits in this legislation continue to limit its full potential. Most obviously, these include the lack of any indication of a date of commencement for the introduction of a minimum unit price (MUP) for alcohol, and a similar absence in relation to the mandatory introduction of alcohol warnings on such beverages.
Concerns also exist around ‘intoxigenic’ (ie drunkenness inducing) environments in Ireland, given the pervasiveness of alcohol advertising. This issue is particularly important in relation to children and youths. The Act will restrict alcohol advertising at sporting venues and local authority parks, as well as in taxis, trains or buses, or at events targeted at children. These developments are positive. However, a number of other elements in this legislation are inadequate and appear rather perfunctory. For example, although there is now an exclusion zone on alcohol advertising around schools, crèches, and local authority playgrounds, under current legislation this zone is a meagre 200m. This exclusion zone obviously needs to be extended to at least 400m, and ideally to at least 500m.
The current legislation also involves exemptions to this exclusion zone for licensed premises and alcohol manufacturers and wholesalers. However, these exemptions are both inappropriate and unnecessary and serve only to perpetuate the pervasiveness of alcohol in Irish streetscapes. Finally, although the current list of premises with advertising exclusion zones is an important start, it is equally clear that many more locations should equally be afforded such protected zones. Obvious examples include health, medical and social care work facilities, as well both civic (eg.libraries & community centres) and entertainment venues routinely visited by children (eg. cinemas, theatres, zoos, wildlife parks, and swimming pools).
For more information see Houghton & McInerney (2020) The Public Health (Alcohol) Act: Spatial issues and glaring gaps. Irish Geography. 53(2). DOI: 10.2014/igj.v53i2.1423 The Public Health (Alcohol) Act: spatial issues and glaring gaps. – Drugs and Alcohol
Welcome to ACORN
The UK and Ireland face common cultural, social, political and economic challenges in reducing harms related to alcohol consumption, yet alcohol research has historically been the domain of clinicians. ACORN has been funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (UK) and the Irish Research Council to take a social science-led approach to alcohol policy research.
ACORN aims to generate and build capacity for interdisciplinary research into the development, adoption, implementation and evaluation of alcohol policy innovation in Ireland and the UK within four cross-cutting themes: price, availability, marketing and politics.
ACORN is open to academic researchers in Ireland and the UK with an interest in research in any of our four themes, with the aim of reducing alcohol-related harms. Policy partners will also be welcome to join activities where relevant.
ACORN starts on 1st March 2021, and will host a launch event on 29th April 2021, 1-4pm. Further details, including sign-up, to follow.