This report examines how No and Low Alcohol (NoLo) beverages are marketed and promoted in the UK and explores how and why consumers drink them. Whilst a more nuanced understanding of the expanding NoLo market and changes in drinking practices is important for policy and public health debates, this topic remains under-researched. The report adds to the evidence base on NoLo consumption in the UK through interviews with drinkers and non-drinkers alongside an examination of marketing and social media outputs for two popular NoLo drinks (Heineken 0.0 and Seedlip).

The examination of marketing materials found that strategies used to promote NoLos include opening up new contexts and times to drink (addition marketing), selling lifestyles and identities and sports marketing/sponsorship. These techniques draw – at times implicitly - on health messages and gendered stereotypes regarding drinking. The interviews found that drinkers and non-drinkers value the increased availability of NoLo drinks and incorporate them flexibly into their own (non)drinking routines. Perceived benefits included both those that come from NoLos being like alcohol as well as those that stem from NoLos being distinct from alcohol. Participants shared some negative perceptions about the ways in which these products are promoted, including the risks of alibi advertising and addition marketing. Whilst there was evidence of the addition approach in marketing, this was not reflected in participants’ practices and there was resistance to the idea of creating new drinking occasions for NoLo consumption. Rather, participants wanted to drink NoLos in traditional drinking settings in place of alcohol...