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Danish bars reported to police for ads aimed at underage drinkers

A string of Danish nightclubs have been reported to police for Facebook posts and marketing which encouraged underage drinking.

Published: 3 June 2019 17:37 CEST

Danish bars reported to police for ads aimed at underage drinkers

File photo: Mads Claus Rasmussen / Ritzau Scanpix

“Free beer for the first hour. Over 16s, unless you are 15 and it’s your last school day,” read a Facebook post by one of six bars or clubs reported to police for illegal advertising.

Six bars across the country have been reported to trading standards authority Forbrugerombudsmanden over the ad.

“If discotheques target their marketing towards under-18s, alcohol must not be referred to in the marketing material,” consumer ombudsman Christina Toftegaard Nielsen said in a press statement.

“We report breaches of that rule, because its purpose is to protect young people,” Nielsen added.

The bars in question are Retro in Helsingør, which made 22 illegal Facebook posts; Temabar in Vejle (5 posts), Temabar in Viborg (2), One in Fredericia (3), and Dr. Emils in Marielyst and Mona in Maribo (1 post each).

Complaints to the ombudsman over the bars were made by industry interest organisation Alkohol & Samfund (Alcohol and Society) and advertising standards board Alkoholreklamenævnet.

Alkohol & Samfund director Peter Konow welcomed the move to file complaints with police.

“Adverts that encourage young people to get drunk are hazardous to health and are therefore banned,” Konow said.

Current Danish licensing laws stipulate that people under 18 are allowed to enter bars and restaurants that become nightclubs until 2am, providing they do not consume alcohol whilst there.

READ ALSO: Danish police want nightlife ban on under 18s

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Spain has second highest rate of daily alcohol drinkers in EU

Photo: Cristina Quicler/AFP

Thirteen percent of people in Spain drink alcohol every day, a similar rate to Italy, where 12 percent enjoy a tipple on a daily basis, and only behind Portugal, where 20 percent of people have an alcoholic drink seven days a week.

That puts Spaniards above the EU average of 8.4 percent daily drinkers, data published by Eurostat in July 2021 reveals.

This consistent alcoholic intake among Spaniards is far higher than in countries such as Sweden (1.8 percent daily drinkers), Poland (1.6 percent), Norway (1.4 percent), Estonia (1.3 percent) and Latvia (1.2 percent).

However, the survey that looked at the frequency of alcohol consumption in people aged 15 and over shows that weekly and monthly drinking habits among Spaniards are more in line with European averages.

A total of 22.9 percent of respondents from Spain said they drunk booze on a weekly basis, 18.3 percent every month, 12.5 percent less than once a month, and 33 percent haven’t had a drink ever or in the last year.

Furthermore, another part of the study which looked at heavy episodic drinking found that Spaniards are the third least likely to get blind drunk, after Cypriots and Italians.

The Europeans who ingested more than 60 grammes of pure ethanol on a single occasion at least once a month in 2019 were Danes (37.8 percent), Romanians (35 percent), Luxembourgers (34.3 percent) and Germans (30.4 percent).

The UK did not form part of the study but Ireland is included.

Overall, Eurostat’s findings reflect how the Spanish habit of enjoying a glass of wine with a meal or a small beer (caña) outdoors with friends continues to be common daily practice, even though 13 percent does not make it prevalent.

Spaniards’ tendency to drink in moderation also continues to prevail, even though a 2016 study by Danish pharmaceuticals company Lundbeck found that one in six people in the country still drinks too much.

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