Alcohol Advertising Advocacy Research No Match for Corporate Dollars: The Case of Bundy R Bear

The Australian Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code (ABAC) states that alcohol advertising must not have evident appeal to children and underage youth. Nevertheless, the Bundaberg Rum brand uses a polar bear character (personalised as Bundy R Bear) in their advertising and promotion, including social networking sites. The results of several small scale research activities undertaken to support complaints that this animal character has evident appeal to children are presented here. However, in spite of substantial evidence that the animal character appeals to children and adolescents, the self-regulation ABAC Scheme, which is co-managed by the Australian Government Department of Health, rejects such complaints and allows the polar bear to continue in Bundaberg Rum advertising. This paper canvasses why an animal character with evident appeal to children is permitted to continue to promote alcohol, including pre-mixed spirits (alcopops), in spite of the self-regulation code prohibiting such use. While health advocacy research - the gathering of data to support policy and interventions to reduce harm - is often considered crucial to help persuade policy makers to introduce consumer protection policies and practices, this paper illustrates that in this case, such data are insufficient to counter vested interests.. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT]