Letter from the National Consumers League to the Federal Trade Commission on alcohol advertising  

February 15, 2002

The Honorable Timothy J. Muris, Chairman
Federal Trade Commission
600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N. W.
Washington , DC 20580

Dear Chairman Muris:

            The National Consumers League is writing to ask that the Federal Trade Commission work with industries that advertise alcohol products to modify their own codes of advertising to a higher standard.  The voluntary ban on television liquor advertising, in effect since 1948, is over. Since 1996, liquor ads have begun to appear on cable and local television stations.  Late last year, a major network, NBC, announced it too would begin airing ads for distilled spirits. 

            According to a 1999 survey by the Harvard School of Public Health, more than five million American teenagers are “binge drinkers.” Nearly one quarter of college students are frequent binge drinkers. Underage drinking contributes directly to a host of problems, such as drunk driving and violence. Alcohol is involved in more than a quarter of teen suicides and homicides, the second and third leading causes of death in that age group. Alcohol advertising, and the loose industry standards for alcohol ads, no doubt contribute to this state of affairs. For example, products such as Mike’s Hard Lemonade and similar new age beverages attract young and first time drinkers as you may be aware we brought to the Commission’s attention in the past.         

            The return of TV liquor ads may, however, have a silver lining if the strict standards that NBC has said it will apply to liquor ads were to be applied to all alcohol advertising across the board. NBC has placed significant restrictions on the liquor ads it will accept. These restrictions include:

• Distilled spirits makers must air four months of responsibility messages before airing any promotional advertising;

• Thereafter, at least 20 percent of total advertising must be devoted solely to responsibility messages;

• Liquor ads will be limited primarily to the hours between 9:00 and 11:00 p.m. or to shows with an audience that is at least 85 percent adult viewers; and

• Liquor ads may not include athletes, entertainers, or actors under 30 years old; may not portray liquor consumption as a “mark of adulthood” or “rite of passage; and may not use symbols of characters intended to appeal to an underage (i.e., under 21) audience.

These are important restrictions that, unfortunately, are not adhered to by TV ads for beer.

            Instead of the blanket 85 percent adult viewer cap, the NBC restrictions could be strengthened by implementing a gross number on underage audiences, and perhaps initial messages could be sponsored by a third party and not the brands.

While the beer industry has a voluntary advertising code, its standards are lax and compliance is weak.  In recent years, beer ads have included cartoon characters and other devices that seem to deliberately target underage drinkers. Beer ads also portray beer drinking as a “mark of adulthood” that will make one more “cool” and more appealing to the opposite sex, playing on the insecurities of teenagers. And beer ads continue to run heavily during professional sports broadcasts, including college games that have a large underage viewing audience.

            The double standard that tolerates the current low standards for beer advertising makes no sense at all. Standard servings of beer, wine, and distilled spirits contain the same amount of alcohol. In the United States , alcohol abuse and underage drinking are far more likely to involve beer than wine or liquor. In the 1999 Harvard study mentioned above, underage binge drinkers were 9 times more likely to drink beer than other alcoholic beverages. Between 2000 and 2001, more than 62 percent of high school seniors reported drinking beer, and nearly 25 percent reported getting drunk on beer. 

            We urge the Commission to work with the industry so that all alcohol advertising is held to the same high standards. The previous practice of treating liquor ads as taboo while giving beer ads carte blanche was a mistake.  Thank you for your consideration. 

Sincerely,  

LINDA F. GOLODNER

President