EXECUTIVE SUMMARY: The Big Alcohol Exposed Annual Report 2024 provides a detailed analysis of the alcohol industry’s worldwide activities. This report reveals the extent and penetration of Big Alcohol interference against people’s health, evidence-based public, policy, as well as healthy and inclusive societal norms. The report exposes the predatory practices deployed by Big Alcohol in the past year, to protect and promotes its profits, expand markets, and undermine lives saving alcohol policy measures. The products and practices of multinational alcohol corporations cause devastating health, social, and economic harms and this report shines a light on Big Alcohol’s track record in 2024. This report highlights the key themes, trends, and case studies that define the alcohol industry’s operations in 2024, offering a roadmap for advocates and policymakers to address these challenges.
KEY HIGHLIGHTS
- The alcohol industry continues to prioritize their own profits over people’s health by targeting vulnerable populations, resisting effective regulation, and promoting harmful myths about alcohol’s benefits. Strategies such as health-washing, deceitful marketing, and political interference have been central elements of the alcohol industry’s playbook in 2024.
- In 2024, key alcohol industry strategies included the normalization of alcohol through sports sponsorships, misleading health claims, greenwashing environmental impacts, and leveraging non-alcoholic product lines to build loyalty with alcoholic brands. These tactics not only obscure alcohol’s inherent risks but also seek to embed the alcohol industry as an indispensable part of society.
- Big Alcohol continues to use economic power to pollute policy environments, and discourses often creating dependency relationships that hinder governments from implementing effective alcohol policy solutions. Investments and lobbying efforts in countries like Mexico, Uganda, and Brazil showcase the industry’s ability to block regulations that prioritize people’s health.
- Advanced data-driven marketing techniques and targeted campaigns increasingly focus on Generation Z, embedding alcohol brands into social and digital spaces frequented by young people. This includes the use of influencers, apps, and streaming platforms to bypass regulatory frameworks and normalize alcohol among the young generation.
- This year’s case stories document how Big Alcohol uses misinformation, industry-funded research, and co-opted prevention programs to deflect scrutiny and obscure its role in driving and perpetuating harm. From promoting the debunked J-curve myth, to funding school-based programs in Spain, the industry continues to prioritize its image over public health accountability