France's Évin Law on the control of alcohol advertising: content, effectiveness and limitations

To assess the effectiveness of the 2015 version of the French Évin Law that was implemented in 1991 with the objective of protecting young people from alcohol advertising.

Data were obtained from survey questions measuring exposure and receptivity to alcohol advertisements that were introduced for the first time in the 2015 European School Survey Project on Alcohol and Other Drugs (ESPAD).

A representative sample of 6642 10th-12th grade students (mean age 17.3 years) were interviewed in 198 schools in France by a self-administered questionnaire.

Information was collected on alcohol advertising exposure in different media (outside billboards, internet, etc.) and receptivity to recent advertisements (attractiveness, incentive to drink, etc.).

The majority of students declared that they had been exposed at least once a month to alcohol advertisements in supermarkets (73.2%), in movies (66.1%), magazines and newspapers (59.1%), on billboards in streets (54.5%), and on the internet (54.1%). Concerning the last recalled advertisements, 27.8% remembered the beverage type, 18.2% the brand, 13% felt like having a drink after having seen the advertisement and 19.6% found the advertisement attractive (boys ranked significantly higher than girls for all these indicators; P-value < 0.05).

The 2015 version of the French Évin law does not appear to protect young people effectively from exposure to alcohol advertising in France.