Scottish Health Action on Alcohol Problems (SHAAP) and the Scottish Alcohol Research Network (SARN) invite you to join us online on Tuesday 20 June from 12.45-14.00 BST (UK time) for our third SHAAP/SARN Alcohol Occasionals event of 2023.
Alcohol marketing is highly gendered and helps shape how gender roles and relations are understood and reproduced, and the gendered nature of drinking learned and experienced. In recent years there is evidence of changes in how women are both targeted and represented by the alcohol industry, with debate around the implications of this for gender equality and health. Dr Amanda Atkinson will present findings of a mixed methods ESRC study that explored how women are targeted and represented by alcohol brands, how this has changed over time, and how such marketing is experienced, viewed and interpreted by consumers in intersectional ways. It will also draw on a critical analysis of interviews with alcohol marketers to reflect on how women are targeted and represented, and how and why this has changed in recent times.
Dr Amanda Marie Atkinson is a Reader in the Sociology of Public Health in the Public Health Institute, at Liverpool John Moores University. Her research predominantly relates to (gendered) drinking cultures, (gendered) substance use, commercial determinants, and the influence of media and alcohol marketing depictions on identity making. She is Principle Investigator on an ESRC funded project, which explores the nature, creation, impact and regulation of gendered alcohol brand and nightlife marketing in the age of contemporary feminism(s) and social justice activism (https://equalisenightlifeproject.com/). It considers the role of brand and venue marketing that reproduces gender stereotypes and the sexualisation of women, as well as the use of ‘social cause’ marketing which is said to promote equality, on identity making and experiences of drinking and the night time environment. Related studies on which she leads include an exploration of women’s experiences of working in the craft beer sector and how this compares to the image of craft beer as ‘progressive’, and a study exploring the sobriety journeys of female sober bloggers/influencers. Her research uses both qualitative and quantitative methods (with a specialism in the former), and creative/artistic research dissemination.
The webinar will be hosted online using Zoom, and registrants will receive a link to join.
This event is for public health professionals, researchers, healthcare workers, civil servants, NGOs, health agencies etc. If you or your organisation receives funding from the alcohol industry (alcohol producers, retailers, trade associations, Social Aspect Public Relations Organisations (SAPROs), & Business-Interest NGOs) please do not attend.