An expert on substance misuse wants people to think twice before handing over alcohol-themed novelty gifts to women at Christmas.
Professor Carol Emslie stressed the alcohol-related death rate for women in Scotland is higher than the rest of the UK.
She said products such as Christmas jumpers with the slogan GINgle Bells, gin candles, cushions that read Oh Come Let Us Adore Gin and T-shirts with the slogan Ho Ho Ho Pass the Prosecco all send out the wrong message.
Prof Emslie, who leads Glasgow Caledonian University Substance Use and Misuse research group, has joined up with Alcohol Focus Scotland to launch social media campaign #dontpinkmydrink to target focused marketing of alcohol to women.
National Records for Scotland figures show there were 1,235 alcohol-related deaths in 2017 – 854 were men and 381 were women.
Despite a significant drop in alcohol-related deaths since 2001, death rates are still higher in Scotland than anywhere else in the UK.
Prof Emslie said: “There’s been a huge explosion in gimmicky alcohol-themed gifts for women this Christmas.
“Perhaps in the past we’ve ignored this but I urge everyone to think twice about buying these gifts this Christmas.
“They send out a worrying message about the normalisation of alcohol in Scottish society to our nearest and dearest.
“Alcohol-related death rates for women in Scotland have come down but they are still worse than the rest of the UK. There is still a lot of work to be done.”
The campaign is aimed at “identifying and exposing examples of cynical marketing which seeks to link alcohol products to women’s friendships, feminism and empowerment” and encourages people to post these on social media.
Alison Douglas, chief executive of Alcohol Focus Scotland, said: “Whether we are shopping for cards, homeware or sportswear, nowhere is safe from gimmicky products that encourage us to reward ourselves with a drink or link alcohol with female friendships and empowerment.
“The #dontpinkmydrink campaign is a positive way for us to call out alcohol producers and retailers and tell them we won’t endorse their products.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel