Alcohol adverts exploit gaps in local regulation

This story has significance for readers across Kenya and beyond.

Let’s be honest. We have all seen them: billboards that seem to follow you home, social media posts that make a Friday night cocktail look like the route to happiness, and influencer reels linking a “refreshing” drink to glamour. In Kenya, our vibrant spirit is increasingly overshadowed by the alcohol industry’s thirst for profits.

We have laws, and they are getting tougher. The Alcoholic Drinks Control Act, 2010, outlaws advertising suggesting alcohol brings social or sexual success, or is acceptable before driving or sports.

The proposed National Policy on Prevention of Alcohol and Drug Abuse goes further, seeking to ban online advertising and promotion and celebrity and influencer endorsements. But laws are only as effective as their enforcement, especially online.

How do you regulate a sponsored Instagram story that disappears after 24 hours or a TikTok influencer featuring a branded drink in a lifestyle video?

A 2024 study of 836 Kenyan university students found they saw an average of 3.6 alcohol-related Facebook posts daily. Exposure was significantly associated with risky drinking, explaining about 56 per cent of variation in such behaviour.

Research on tobacco marketing also shows that Kenyan laws have struggled to keep pace with digital marketing, allowing promotions to be embedded in lifestyle content. Alcohol advertisers use similar tactics.

There is also a more fundamental question: not simply what advertisers can do within the law, but what they should do. Studies have linked exposure to online alcohol advertising with risky drinking among young people.

Targeting youth through lifestyle and influencer content can also build brand loyalty early. When an alcohol producer sponsors a popular music festival, it is not merely supporting the arts; it is associating its product with youth culture. This is advertising by stealth.

Imagine being a parent trying to guide a teenager while their phone constantly exposes them to such messages. On the morning commute, they see a billboard showing friends laughing over beer. In the evening, their favourite YouTuber promotes a brand. Such normalised exposure can undermine the messages parents are trying to instil. The industry often points to jobs and tax revenues.

Its contribution to the economy is real. But economic benefits cannot be measured without considering the social and health costs of harmful alcohol use. A healthier nation is a more productive one, and protecting young people should be part of the industry’s responsibility.

While we wait for regulation to catch up with the digital tide, the onus must also fall on advertisers. Self-restraint in the manner, content, form and timing of advertising is not a compromise; it is responsible, long-term thinking. It means avoiding the glamorisation of alcohol, ending the targeting of young people through influencer culture and recognising that some profits are not worth the cost.

Kenya deserves advertisers who do what is right, not merely what is legal.

Simon Mwangi is Deputy Director, Corporate Communications at the National Authority for the Campaign Against Alcohol and Drug Abuse (NACADA).

Reporting originally appeared via Nation Africa. Read the full source for additional context.