Alkoholiteollisuuden strategiat alkoholijuomien mainosrajoitusten vastustamiseksi

Since joining the European Union, the Finnish alcohol regulation has been less strict and the transnational alcohol industry has been more active to interfere in the Finnish alcohol policy. The designing of Finnish alcohol policy indicates the attribute of balancing the EU’s harmonization policy and national health. From 2007 to 2011, the government was preparing to tighten the advertisement regulation and continued the work with a new task force in 2011 – 2015. During the negotiation and legislation process, the alcohol industry intensively lobbied the policy makers and influenced public opinion. The public debate heated up in 2012, when the Minister of Health and Public Affairs proposed an act on restricting the regulation of image advertising. However, the ban on outdoor advertising was accepted and enacted in the beginning of 2015. This study investigates the strategies of the Finnish alcohol industry during the legislation on alcohol advertising restrictions. The data includes 12 interviews of representatives of alcohol industry, health authorities and policy experts. In addition, we collected textual data containing newspaper articles, campaign material and policy documents. The data is analyzed with theory-driven content analysis method by employing a framework of the strategies applied by alcohol industry. The results point out two significant lobbying strategies in Finland: information and constituency building. The information lobbying emphasizes direct influencing on decision-makers by interest groups and revolving door tactic, and constituency building forming alliances. The brewing industry acts as the most aggressive and wide-ranging in its lobbying style. The alcohol industry endeavors on creating strong alliances and common agendas with its stakeholders, especially with advertisement agencies, where the collaboration is based on mutual interests. The transnational alcohol corporations seek collaboration with Finnish lobby groups which have adopted similar tactics practiced also by the tobacco industry.