Celebrity actors, musicians and athletes are promoting their own alcohol products on Instagram without clear disclosure of advertising content - and almost all posts are visible to underage users, according to new research from La Trobe University's Centre for Alcohol Policy Research.
The study, published in Pediatrics analysed more than 85,000 Instagram posts from 112 celebrities who own alcohol brands to identify how often they posted about their products. The team then used a simulated social media account of a 15-year-old to determine whether the branded posts were visible to underage users.
Between 2020 and 2023, the researchers found three in four of the identified celebrities (75 per cent) mentioned their own alcohol brand in at least one Instagram post and nearly 38 per cent explicitly referenced their brand in their biography.
Celebrities promoted a total of 133 alcohol brands including wine (22 per cent), whiskey (19 per cent) and tequila (16 per cent).
Lead author and graduate researcher Gedefaw Alen said the findings raised serious concerns about youth exposure to harmful alcohol marketing online, as millions of young people viewed posts from their favourite social media influencers every day.
"Almost 98 per cent of celebrity alcohol-branded posts were accessible to the account we set up for a 15-year-old, who would be well below the legal drinking age in Australia and in most countries," Mr Alen said.
"These posts combined generated over 1 billion likes and 7.5 million comments, which highlights their pervasive reach and influence."
Overall, the study found 3.4 per cent of identified posts mentioned a celebrity's alcohol brand, but only 1.7 per cent of alcohol-branded posts included a clear caption #ad, 'sponsored post' or 'paid partnership'.
Under the Australian Ad Standards industry Code of Ethics, advertising must always be distinguishable from content. This rule applies to all advertising including influencer posts in social media.
Mr Alen said research had shown celebrity-endorsed alcohol promotions were more influential than traditional marketing and were associated with early initiation to risky drinking among adolescents and young adults.
Professor Emmanuel Kuntsche, Director of the Centre for Alcohol Policy Research, said the study highlighted a significant gap in social media platform policies and industry self-regulation, especially around own-brand influencer promotions.
"Current age-gating and paid advertising disclosure rules on social media are failing young people," Professor Kuntsche said.
"Stronger government regulation is needed to protect teens. Regardless of whether influencers promote their own or another company's alcohol products, we must ensure alcohol-branded posts are clearly disclosed as advertising and are hidden from users below the minimum legal purchasing age."
Despite Australian guidelines recommending people under 18 should not drink alcohol to reduce their risk of injury and harm, the National Drug Strategy Household Survey 2022-2023 showed one in three people aged 14 to 17 consumed alcohol.
