67% of Australians Want Alcohol Ads Banned from Sports. Could It Work in the U.S.?

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images If they were not already a familiar part of our lives, sports sponsorships would seem very peculiar. Aren't fast food and beer

Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images

If they were not already a familiar part of our lives, sports sponsorships would seem very peculiar. Aren't fast food and beer detrimental to excelling in athletics? Apparently one country has already made that realization, as more than two-thirds of Australians polled want alcohol advertising banned in sports.

If Australia's culture at games is anything like what it is here, it's not particularly difficult to see why. It seems not a week goes by during the NFL season in which there isn't a brawl in the stands or parking lot, and it's a fair assumption that a vast majority of these tussles involve liquid courage. At this point, fans accept exposure to drunkards as another cost of game attendance.

While staying at home may shield you from others' alcohol abuse, however, you'll still be inundated with beer ads and there's a solid chance you'll be drinking a beer while that happens:

• In 2007, Anheuser-Busch spent over $218 million (84% of its total TV spending) on advertising for sporting events. This was by far more than any other corporation, besting second-place Chevrolet by more than $45 million.
• The NCAA limits alcohol advertising to 60 seconds per hour of its broadcasts. Beer commercials comprised 12% of Final Four ads in 2008 and 6% of ads for BCS games in the 2008-09 season.
• In 2009, a consortium wrote to David Stern asking him to pretty-please maintain the NBA's longtime ban of hard liquor advertising. The plea fell on deaf ears.
• Anheuser-Busch InBev is the exclusive beer advertiser of the Super Bowl. This past year, they debuted at least six new ads, three of which were 60 seconds long. Standard 30-second spots cost about $4 million.
• It was estimated that more than 50 million cases of beer were consumed during this past Super Bowl. In 2006, beer sales were projected to rise $11.8 million during Super Bowl week.

Now go grab your geographically-determined major lite beer and drink up!

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The Drum