A quarter of State of Origin sponsorships feature ‘harmful’ products

An analysis of sponsorships for this year’s rugby league State of Origin has revealed that 25% of them were by companies who promote gambling, alcohol or unhealthy food - leading public health advocates to call for a change in advertising laws around major sporting events,

The Foundation for Alcohol Research and Education (FARE Australia) has found that during the current 2023 Origin series, seven alcohol companies, seven ‘unhealthy’ food brands and two gambling platforms were among the official sponsors.

Alcohol features prominently among these promotions with the overall State of Origin Series sponsored by Bundaberg and VB - as well as DrinkWise Australia - while Tooheys and Jim Beam having prominent sponsorships in place with the NSW team and Ned Whiskey and XXXX have deals with Queensland.

McDonald’s sponsors both teams, while KFC and Solo sponsor the Origin series. The Star casino features on NSW jersey branding, while Sportsbet is a broadcast sponsor.

In addition, 11 of the 16 highlighted sponsors ran Facebook and Instagram ads in concert with Game One of the 2023 Origin series, with 135 unique ads showing during the game - 35.5 % of these directly related to sports.

FARE Australia Chief Executive, Caterina Giorgi explains “sporting events like the State of Origin have become one big ad for harmful products, like alcohol.

“We know that the younger that children are exposed to alcohol marketing, the more likely they are to start drinking earlier and to drink at higher levels, putting them at risk of greater harm.”

Royal Australian College of General Practitioners President Dr Nicole Higgins wants a ban on such advertising, noting “Australian families should be able to enjoy sport without having to be confronted with a barrage of ads and logos pushing alcohol, gambling and unhealthy foods.

“Every day, as GPs, we see people whose health and wellbeing has been negatively impacted by these harmful industries. The multi-million-dollar marketing and sponsorship deals by these harmful, addictive and unhealthy companies have no place in sport. For the sake of the community’s health and wellbeing, these sponsorships need to end.”

Carol Bennett, Chief Executive of the Alliance for Gambling, added “there is no place for harmful product marketing, like gambling advertising and sponsorship, in sport.”

Attracting a large audience which includes children and families, in 2022 the State of Origin had a national audience of 2.585 million views on linear television and 463,000 viewers on Live Broadcaster Video on Demand (BVOD).

Image credit: NRL.