Rewriting the rules or playing the game?

The Issue

'Rewriting the rules or playing the game? An investigation into the ways in which social norms around gender & drinking are challenged &/or reinforced through the promotion, marketing & consumption of Alcohol-Free drinks' is a 1-year research project conducted by Dr Emily Nicholls in the Department of Sociology and funded by the Institute of Alcohol Studies.

The ‘alcohol-free’ or ‘no and low’ (NoLo) alcohol market is expanding in the UK, and we know that drinking rates are declining amongst parts of the population alongside a growth in the popularity of ‘temporary abstinence initiatives’ such as Dry January. Whilst the UK government has expressed an interest in supporting the expanding NoLo market as a strategy to offer increased choice for consumers and to support them to drink in more moderate ways, there is limited research on the implications of this growing market and its potential to alleviate (or indeed exacerbate) the harms caused by alcohol in the UK and more widely.

 Further research is required to explore the ways in which NoLo products are marketed and promoted (including by leading players in the Alcohol Industry), including the ways in which this marketing may challenge and / or reinforce particular social norms around gender and drinking. A greater understanding of the ways in which both drinkers and non-drinkers incorporate NoLo products into their own everyday consumption regimes is also needed.

The Project

This exploratory project seeks to address a gap in existing literature through starting to develop an evidence base examining the implications of the expanding NoLo market. With a particular interest in gendered dynamics, the project focus on a popular NoLo beer and spirit as case studies, analysing the ways in which these are marketed and positioned through specific advertising campaigns and through social media Instagram accounts (including the associations with particular lifestyles, sport and expressions of gendered identity). The project also involves interviews with drinkers and non-drinkers to explore their own (non)drinking practices and their reflections on the ways in which NoLo products are marketed. 

Findings will inform a report produced for the funder (Institute of Alcohol Studies) to highlight the way NoLo products are used by consumers, the messages promoted through the marketing of these products and – importantly – the ways in which these marketing campaigns and consumer practices might reinforce or challenge dominant social norms around (a) gender and drinking and (b) alcohol consumption more widely. This will allow us to consider some of the implications for alcohol policy debates, including ways in which the expansion of the NoLo market might reduce and/or perpetuate alcohol-related harm and how the market might be regulated in future.

View the blog written by the project leader about this study here.

People

Emily Nicholls – Principal Investigator, pictured left – emily.nicholls@york.ac.uk