An evaluation of the evidence submitted to Australian alcohol advertising policy consultations

February 2022
Citation: 
Stafford J, Chikritzhs T, Pierce H, Pettigrew S (2021) An evaluation of the evidence submitted to Australian alcohol advertising policy consultations. PLoS ONE 16(12): e0261280. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0261280

Industry self-regulation is the dominant approach to managing alcohol advertising in Australia and many other countries. This study examined relevance and quality features of evidence cited by industry and non-industry actors in their submissions to Australian alcohol advertising policy consultations.

More than 70 submissions to two public consultations with a primary focus on alcohol advertising policy were analysed. The study concluded that modifications to consultation processes, such as exclusion of industry actors, quality requirements for submitted evidence, minimum standards for referencing evidence, and requirements to declare potential conflicts, may improve the public health outcomes of policy consultations.

Read the paper here