Consumer protection messages in alcohol marketing on Twitter in Ireland: a content analysis

Figures & data

Table 1. Twitter accounts sampled, the number of Tweets sent, and number of account followers.

Account name	Beverage subsector	Tweets sent	Account followers
Bulmers Ireland	Cider	2,186	5,693
Dingle Distillery	Spirits	8,711	14,210
Guinness Ireland	Beer	6,268	70,614
Heineken Ireland	Beer	5,428	14,260
Jameson Ireland	Spirits	1,566	4,200
Metalman Brewing	Beer	9,622	8,999
O’Hara’s Brewery	Beer	12,000^a	11,583
Orchard Thieves	Cider	1,506	7,295
Power’s Whiskey	Spirits	883	3,132
Teeling Whiskey	Spirits	29,200^a	23,056
The White Hag	Beer	7,717	8,570
Trouble Brewing	Beer	4,049	10,142
Waterford Distillery	Spirits	6,126	5,485

Notes: Data correct as of July 2021; ^aDue to volume sent, values were rounded by Twitter.

Table 2. Presence and type of voluntary and self-regulatory consumer protection messages observed in Tweets.

Variable	%	n
Contained any form of self-regulatory consumer protection message^a	36.3	201
‘Get the facts. Be DRINKAWARE’^a	20.0	111
Drink responsibly or similar	10.3	57
Enjoy responsibly or similar	7.0	39
Included brand name in consumer protection message	6.9	38
Support responsibly	3.4	19
Socialise responsibly	3.1	17
DryJanuary references or other abstinent campaigns	1.1	6
Taste responsibly or similar	0.5	3
Other^b	0.5	3
Consuming alcohol responsibly in relation to COVID-19^c	0.4	2

Notes: Tweets could contain more than one type of consumer protection message.

^aTwo additional Tweets coded as ‘Unsure’ as they appeared to contain the ‘Get the Facts. Be DRINKAWARE. Visit drinkaware.ie’ message, but these were obscured by pop-ups in a video.

^bTwo Tweets included reference about the serving size depicted and one encouraged consumers to complete a short quiz to test their knowledge of alcohol use on Diageo’s DrinkIQ.com.

^cExcludes public health messages about COVID-19 that were not related to alcohol (e.g. wearing masks, closing distilleries for visitor tours due to social restrictions etc).

Data availability statement

The data or materials are available upon reasonable request from the corresponding author.