Advertising - Beer ban?

Last week a cross party group of 29 MP's signed a commons motion calling for the 9pm watershed for alcohol advertising. The ban on advertising of alcohol has been on the cards ever since the tobacco ban in 2003, but there may be a few unforeseen problems for the government on this one...

This was backed by the BMA and the British Heart Foundation amongst other. This has been backed by Sir Liam Donaldson, the chief medical officer at the Dept. of Health.

However he also called for drinks companies to be banned from sponsoring sports and other events associating alcohol with physical fitness. "Its something that worked with tobacco", he said.

All well and good you might think, although next years Olympic team may not be to happy as Budweiser's parent company Anheuser Busch is a partner of the British Olympic Association and will back the British team in Beijing through its Michelob Ultra brand.

On and Mrs Jowell, her of the Jowellgate affair as it was called and Olympics Minister wont be to happy either. The organising committee for the 2012 games has been scouting for a tier-one sponsor, which is worth some eighty million quid and Budweiser is top of the list.

And lets face it what with the piss poor accounting on the Olympic costs, our Tess needs all the pennies she can get. Not that finance is her strong point, as she knows not even how her own home was mortgaged by her husband.

Watch lots of New Liebour ministers spin themselves out of control on this one, being both in favour of a ban and also in favour of taking lots of nice cash from Anheuser Busch.

Cheers!
Tags: Anheuser Busch
Budweiser
BMA
Tessa Jowell
Olympics
2012

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