Two elegantly dressed women sit side by side. “How much do you spend on a bottle of wine?” one asks. The other answers: “I would guess about half an hour.”

It’s one of the jokes about women enjoying a drink that is shared on social media, while cards urge us to have a “gintastic birthday” and bags bear the legend “gindependent woman”.

Women are clearly having a laugh with their friends but what many of us don’t realise is that the alcohol industry is behind many of these trends and by sharing them we’re doing their work for them.

Now there’s a growing move to push back against alcohol marketing targeted at women.

Scottish academic Professor Carol Emslie is calling time on the kind of marketing that has brought “wine o’clock”, “mummy juice” and “pop the prosecco” into common parlance and normalised drinking for women.

She will be talking at the European Alcohol Policy in Edinburgh next week about the way big alcohol is aggressively marketing its wares to women, and is launching a social media campaign #dontpinkmydrink to “identify and expose examples of cynical marketing that seeks to link alcohol products to women’s friendships, feminism and empowerment”.

“The alcohol industry is often behind the funny slogans we see about women drinking and I want to call time on women colluding in marketing that exploits them,” says Ms Emslie, a specialist on gender and alcohol use at Glasgow Caledonian University.

The Herald:

Scottish academic Professor Carol Emslie

Recently, alcohol marketing has taken a subtle new turn, appealing to the “woke” generation and feminism.

“After years of objectifying and sexualising women in their advertising, the alcohol industry is now targeting women directly with cynical marketing ploys, the latest of which is to jump on the #TimesUp and other feminist movements,” adds Ms Emslie.

She cites a sparkling wine in a can called #TimesUp by Sparkke, released for International Women’s Day, while Johnnie Walker brought out a Jane Walker edition of their black label whisky, which they say is “in celebration of the many achievements of women”. Drinks giant Diageo was one of the official supporters of International Women’s Day 2018.

Ms Emslie now hopes that women will see through these ploys and use the #dontpinkmydrink hashtag on Twitter to call out the alcohol industry’s “patronising” marketing.

Meanwhile, Alcohol Focus Scotland is calling for more protection from alcohol advertising, including a phased removal of alcohol sponsorship of sports, music and cultural events, and for an independent body to regulate alcohol marketing.

Their chief executive, Alison Douglas, said: “There have been many positives to come out of increased gender equality but the alcohol industry has seen it as an opportunity to expand their market base and create products that appeal to women, such as prosecco and gin.”

Ms Emslie’s campaign comes at a time when Scots are taking a hard look at our reputation as a hard-drinking nation. Earlier this year, Scotland became the first country in the world to implement a minimum unit price for alcohol at 50p, which Alcohol Focus Scotland say will save 58 lives in its first year and reduce hospital admissions by 299.

The statistics are sobering – one in four (24 per cent) of Scots drink at harmful levels of more than 14 units a week, according to the Scottish Health Survey of 2017, and figures from the National Records of Scotland show there were 1,265 alcohol-related deaths in 2016 – an increase of 10% compared with the previous year.

We are certainly drinking far more than previous generations – the total consumption of alcohol rose by 15% between 1994 and 2016, according to the Scottish Government

There has been a nine per cent decrease in alcohol consumption per adult since 2009, but the levels are still high with a fifth more alcohol sold per adult in Scotland than in England and Wales. 

Around 24 people a week die from alcohol-related deaths in Scotland – more than 50 per cent higher than south of the border.

However, women’s part in the national sport of drinking to excess is hugely overplayed in the media, according to Professor Emslie, and shows how women face double standards.

“Although women’s drinking has increased over the last 30 years, men drink far more and have more alcohol related deaths. Women are judged more harshly on their drinking and risk being viewed with contempt and sexual assault when they drink too much,” she said.

The figures bear out her argument: in 2017, According to the Scottish Health Survey, 33% of men in Scotland drink more than 14 units a week compared with 16% of women. 

Men in Scotland drink an average of 16.4 units of alcohol a week, and women an average of 8.6 units. Deaths related to alcohol stood at 867 for men in 2016 and 398 for women. Since 1979, there have been roughly twice as many male deaths as female deaths.

“Women can’t win,” says Ms Emslie. “They are targeted by the alcohol industry and encouraged to relax
with a drink after the kids have gone to bed or to have fun on a girls’ night out, but they are condemned if they ‘get into a state’.

“Alcohol is portrayed as sophisticated and empowering for women, but at the same time, women are judged more harshly than men for getting drunk.”