It’s time to show alcohol and junk food sponsorships the red card
Over the past few months, fans across the world have come together to watch football, cricket, rugby and more. Major sporting events like the FIFA World Cup, Commonwealth Games, and Wimbledon are a time to celebrate excellence at the highest levels of sport. They also bring people together in support of their national teams and athletes with joy, passion and pride. Yet looming over these events is the pervasive sponsorship and advertisement of health-harming products, particularly alcohol and junk food, which directly contradict the essence of sport. This can best be described as “sportswashing” – the practice of using sport and its positive associations to enhance reputations and divert attention from the negative impacts of an individual, product, company, or government.
Promotion of health-harming products and cancer risk
As a cancer prevention charity, the pervasive presence of alcohol and junk food promotions at sporting events watched by millions, and in some cases billions, is deeply concerning. Around 40% of cancer cases are caused by risk factors such as alcohol and obesity and it has long been established that the marketing of alcohol and unhealthy food and drink drives consumption of these products. This is a child rights issue. The UN Committee on the Rights of the Child has stated that the marketing of health-harming products to children impedes their right to life, survival and development as set out in Article 6 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child. This is unsurprising given evidence that junk food advertising is associated with childhood obesity whilst alcohol marketing has also been shown to increase uptake and consumption amongst young people.
Despite this, we live in a world where sporting events are closely intertwined with the promotion of health-harming products that are known to contribute to cancer and other diseases. This is part of a wider strategy through which health-harming industries align themselves with sport, from local grassroots clubs and children’s physical activity programmes all the way through to elite competitions. This ultimately creates a powerful association between sport and products such as sugar-sweetened beverages and alcohol. As a result, advertising and sponsorship from these industries have become so deeply embedded in sport that they are not only normalised but expected. To understand the scale of the issue, it is worth taking a closer look at some examples from recent sporting events.
Industry’s smoke and mirrors
First up, and front of mind over the last couple of weeks, is the 2026 Men’s FIFA World Cup. Just two days before the tournament kicked off, Ab InBev (the world’s largest brewer and parent company of Budweiser) announced that its global partnership agreement with FIFA, which grants it the title of ‘Official Beer Sponsor’ of the FIFA World Cup, had been extended to 2030. The company’s reach extends beyond football. Ab InBev own Corona, which became the first ever Olympic Games beer sponsor with a partnership beginning at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and expected to continue until 2032.
As we know, such partnerships do more than sell products. When it comes to alcohol, they serve to associate these products with positive emotions, success and national pride. Ab InBev CEO, Michel Doukeris, explains this himself in an interview with CNBC saying: “Our brand goes very well with sports, those are moments where people are together with friends and family, where memories are built and the enjoyment that you have across sports is something that lasts forever in people’s minds.”
In other words, the partnership is about building long-term positive associations with the brand and, by extension, consuming alcohol. Thereby masking the truth of alcohol’s many harms and the fact that it is an addictive substance, a major cause of preventable premature death, and a Group 1 carcinogen linked to at least seven cancers.
To keep track of all the alcohol advertising taking place at the World Cup, Movendi International launched a global campaign to gather examples and develop a case study library exposing alcohol marketing during the tournament, which will be used for future research and advocacy.
No sporting event is safe
Big Alcohol isn’t the only industry capitalising on sporting events.
Junk food, soft drink and energy drink brands are doing the same, despite their products directly contributing to ill health. Viewers of the World Cup would have seen consistent on-pitch brand advertising of McDonalds whilst Coca-Cola is touted as the “official soft drinks partner” of the Commonwealth Games.
Even the Wimbledon Championships, which is known for minimal advertising, has fallen foul of promoting health-harming products. During this year’s tournament, viewers may have seen the beer brand Stella Artois and Lanson Champagne advertised as official partners.
Showing promotion of health-harming products the red card
Once you take the time to unpack the sponsorship and advertisements at sporting events, it’s hard to argue that we shouldn’t show them the red card.
History is on our side too. Not so long ago, throughout the 20th century, cigarette brands heavily dominated sports sponsorships from Formula 1 to football. Whilst promotions of “smoke-free” alternatives like nicotine pouches and vapes are still highly visible in some sports, significant progress has been made, with over 57 countries enforcing comprehensive bans on tobacco advertising, promotion and sponsorship primarily driven by the WHO’s Framework Convention on Tobacco Control.
Encouragingly, momentum for change is now moving beyond tobacco. In 2024, Member States at the 77th World Health Assembly adopted a resolution on Strengthening health and well-being through sport events, calling on governments to limit the marketing of unhealthy products at sporting events and promote policies to reduce alcohol-related harm. This reflects a growing recognition that sport should support public health, not undermine it.
At its best, sport encourages us to move more, live healthier lives and reach our full potential. It is therefore worth asking: why are so many of the world’s biggest sporting events still being used to promote products that increase the risk of cancer and other diseases?
