Who is marketing alcohol in the slums of Kampala? A closer look at marketing types, content and brands

Abstract

Objective: To understand alcohol marketing strategies used in an urban slum, photographs of street-level (defined as being seen while walking along the streets) alcohol advertisements were assessed to determine the marketing types, content, and brands in Kampala, Uganda. The content of these photographs was categorized and analyzed to understand the strategies implemented in marketing alcoholic beverages at the street-level in the community. Methods: We collected pilot data in May 2019 of the content and placements of alcohol advertisements in urban slums using smart phones. Three teams of researchers walked a set route of four stretches of 100 meters surrounding the boda boda (motorcycle) taxi stand in the urban retail center in three selected areas in Makindye in Kampala, Uganda. After the data collection, the photographs were reviewed, categorized, and simple, descriptive statistics were computed. Results: Across three locations, 181 photos of alcohol advertisements were taken with 129 of the photos meeting the criterion for analysis. The most common marketing message was focused on the product itself with quality, taste, and national pride being the top three sub-categories. Overall, 80% of the advertisements were posters found outside bars, restaurants, or supermarkets. Of the products advertised, 75% of the products were produced by one of two companies: Diageo or AB InBev. Conclusions: The approach for capturing and coding alcohol marketing in urban slums can be refined and used in future research. Also, the approach can be instrumental for characterizing the alcohol environment at a specific time or for continuous monitoring of marketing to inform and evaluate intervention strategies aimed at reducing alcohol advertisement exposure.