New Report Exposes How Big Alcohol Deploys Deliberate Strategies to Target Vulnerable People, to Derail Lifesaving Public Policies, and to Mislead the Public
January 17, 2024 (Stockholm, Sweden) – Movendi International with the support of the RESET Alcohol Initiative has today released a groundbreaking new report: The Big Alcohol Exposed Annual Report 2024 “From Sports to Screens – Exposing Big Alcohol’s Predatory Practices”.
The report sheds light on how the alcohol industry operated in 2024 in the pursuit of its profit maximization agenda no matter the human and societal costs. It exposes key themes of Big Alcohol interference in societies around the world, a host of dubious strategies putting people and communities in harm’s way, and new data substantiating the alcohol industry’s conflict of interest. The report summarizes the most appalling cases of misconduct and predatory practices.
Through deliberate, systematic strategies, the Big Alcohol embeds itself in spaces we trust – sports, digital platforms, and wellness culture – while actively undermining evidence-based policies that protect people’s health.
Movendi International Takes Action
With the evidence of Big Alcohol’s predatory practices and unethical tactics, Movendi International is taking action.
Together with our 170+ member organizations are we now sending this evidence to our governments. Movendi International will today send this report to the World Health Organization and other United Nations agencies,” explain Kristína Šperková and Pubudu Sumanasekara, the leaders of Movendi International.
The evidence in our new report is so clear that we are asking the World Health Organization – again – to stop their annual dialogue meetings with Big Alcohol.
We also submit this report as clear prove that the alcohol industry undermines and counter-acts the implementation of the Global Alcohol Action Plan and the Agenda 2030 that seek to reduce per capita alcohol consumption to promote health and development.
We are asking UN agencies to stop their perilous partnerships with Big Alcohol and heed the evidence that these partnerships are causing harm and blocking progress across the Sustainable Development Goals.
It is also clear that countries need more support to protect their people – especially children and youth – from the harms caused by alcohol companies and to advance evidence-based alcohol policy solutions safeguarded from alcohol industry interference.
The need for developing a global binding treaty for alcohol policy is getting ever clearer.”
Kristína Šperková, International President, and Pubudu Sumanasekara, International Vice President, Movendi International
Fundamental, Inherent, and Direct Conflict of Interest
The report reveals latest data from countries around the world about Big Alcohol’s dependence on heavy alcohol consumption and under-age alcohol use for major parts of their profits.
The report sheds light on how the profit maximization agenda of the alcohol industry is in direct and fundamental conflict with the goals of governments to reduce per capita alcohol consumption in order to promote health and achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
For example, in Germany a research group calculated in 2024 how dependent the alcohol industry is on heavy alcohol consumption: 50.4% of alcohol sales in Germany, amounting to €5.82 billion, are due to high-risk alcohol use.
A Calculated Strategy: From Sports to Screens
The report exposes a clear pattern: Big Alcohol has evolved its tactics to normalize alcohol and target the young generation to hook them early. By infiltrating culturally significant spaces, the alcohol industry leverages trust and visibility to deflect attention from the harms their products and practices cause.
- Sports Sponsorships: Major events, like the 2024 Olympics, have been co-opted to align alcohol brands with health, performance, and cultural pride. Sponsoring elite sports creates an association between alcohol and success while downplaying its health and social costs.
- Digital Predators: The alcohol industry exploits gaps in regulation to target young people through influencers, streaming platforms, and precision marketing. Ads often appear on social media and family-oriented programs, making alcohol exposure unavoidable, even for children.
- Health-Washing: Big Alcohol positions itself as part of a “healthy lifestyle” by promoting non-alcoholic products and misleading claims about moderation. This strategy masks the reality that no level of alcohol use is risk-free, as confirmed by public health evidence.
For example, the report details how the alcohol industry in Australia gathers and uses digital data from people seeking information and help about their alcohol use problem – to target and bombard them with alcohol advertising.
The Dubious Five: A Global Pattern of Misconduct
The report exposes the “Dubious Five” – a framework that identifies the five primary strategies Big Alcohol deploys to maximize its profits and ensure market dominance: Deception, Manipulation, Political Interference, Promotion, and Sabotage.
In 2024, Movendi International together with hundreds of community groups, civil society partners and volunteers, exposed more than 100 cases of alcohol industry misconduct. They are gathered and continuously updated in the Big Alcohol Exposed Misconduct Report Library.
For example, the new report details how Big Alcohol deploys economic claims to obstruct and derail alcohol policy initiative. In Uganda, the alcohol industry managed to destroy the Alcoholic Drinks Control Bill by promoting false claims that it would lead to job losses. The Big Alcohol lobby framed their economic contributions as essential to the country’s prosperity, a misleading and false narrative that deflected attention from the devastating health, social, and economic costs of alcohol harm.
these strategies became increasingly sophisticated and pervasive, with the alcohol industry leveraging them to deflect criticism, shape public opinion, determine what people think about their products but also alcohol harm and policy solutions, and to obstruct evidence-based alcohol policy initiatives.
The Stakes Are High: Why This Report Matters
The Big Alcohol Exposed Annual Report 2024 “From Sports to Screens – Exposing Big Alcohol’s Predatory Practices” serves as both an exposé and a call to action.
The report shows that all the misconduct cases, predatory practices, and unethical tactics are not isolated. They form part of a global strategy to maximize profits, exploit vulnerable populations, and ensure governments fail to protect people from preventable alcohol harms.
By documenting and exposing these harmful strategies and presenting real-world examples, the report provides a clear roadmap to counteract Big Alcohol’s influence and advance policies that save lives.
Kristína Šperková and Pubudu Sumanasekara comment on the report
People around the world have hopes and dreams. They value their own health and the wellbeing of their families and communities highly. They want to see their societies thrive.
But the alcohol industry – multinational alcohol giants and their front groups – stand in the way. Profit maximization is the only agenda they care about. And to drive alcohol sales and consumption they deploy predatory and unethical practices deliberately and systematically – from sports to screens.
With this report, we document appalling cases of alcohol industry misconduct. We expose shocking examples of predatory practices. We reveal the direct and fundamental conflict of interest the alcohol industry has. And we bring to light what otherwise takes place in the dark: Big Alcohol’s deliberate strategies targeting vulnerable people, derailing lives saving public policies, and misleading the public.
The consequences of the alcohol industry’s impact on our families, communities, and societies are grave: people’s hopes and dreams are shattered; the most vulnerable people and communities get exploited; good health and well-being remains out of reach for millions of people. And our societies lose precious resources.
But Big Alcohol’s profit greed and their predatory practices do not go unnoticed any longer. We can see that people are concerned about alcohol industry interference and alcohol companies violating laws. We can see that parents worry about Big Alcohol targeting their children. We can see lawmakers taking action to better protect people from the harms caused by the alcohol industry.
This report is also a call to action: For all of us to denormalize Big Alcohol in our communities. For the World Health Organization to end their annual “dialogue” with the alcohol industry. For the UN agencies to stop ignoring conflicts of interest and end partnerships with alcohol companies and front groups. For governments to place people’s wellbeing before the profits of Big Alcohol. And for a global binding treaty on alcohol to protect alcohol policy making from alcohol industry interference and accelerate much needed alcohol policy action to promote health and development for all.”
Kristína Šperková, International President, and Pubudu Sumanasekara, International Vice President, Movendi International
Speakers from the launch event comment on the report
Vesna-Kerstin Petric
Jim McCambridge
Monika Kosinska
Juliet Namukasa
Notes to the editor
About Movendi International
With 170+ Member Organization from 60+ countries, Movendi International is the largest independent global social movement for development through alcohol prevention. We unite, strengthen and empower civil society to tackle alcohol as serious obstacle to development on personal, community, societal and global level.
About Big Alcohol Exposed
Big Alcohol Exposed is Movendi International’s initiative to monitor, document, expose, and counter-act the unethical practices of multinational alcohol companies and their front groups.
Big Alcohol Exposed is dedicated to rigorously exposing the Dubious 5 strategies – the activities of alcohol giants to derail alcohol policy development, to hook a new generation of users on their harmful products, to undermine laws, regulations, and institutions, to lie about their intentions and objectives, and to cast doubt over science and the real harm their products and practices are causing.
The platform offers updated profiles of major alcohol producers, case studies of alcohol industry interference, and analyses of harmful practices, with a focus on protecting vulnerable communities.
About RESET Alcohol Initiative
This report has been supported by the RESET Alcohol Initiative. A first of its kind, RESET Alcohol is a global initiative that brings together national governments, civil society, researchers, and leaders in public health and alcohol policy to implement three alcohol best-buy policies. RESET Alcohol provides financial, technical, communication, and advocacy support to governments, civil society organizations, and research institutions, primarily in Latin America, Africa and Asia.