Hard liquor on American TV

The alcohol industry made a big breakthrough in the United States recently when NBC, one of the four largest national broadcasting networks agreed to begin accepting advertisements for hard liquor. It is five years since some local and cable television stations began to air commercials produced by Seagrams and a number of other companies for drinks such as vodka, gin, and Scotch whiskey – a move which broke an informal agreement dating back over fifty years.

The television advertisements will have to observe a set of conditions. They will only be able to be shown after nine o'clock at night and the actors who appear in them must all be at least thirty years old. Before they can run commercials for their own brands, the distillers will be obliged to run for four months a series of social-responsibility messages on such topics as designated drivers and moderate drinking.

There is, however, considerable concern that the commercials could be easily watched by youngsters. "This is more than the camel's nose under the tent," said George Hacker, director of the Alcohol Policies Project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest. "It's the first foot forward that will result down the line to opening the door for hard-liquor ads looking like beer ads."

The decision by NBC is a major victory for liquor marketers who have long been anxious to gain access to the extremely important advertising medium of television. "We're very pleased we have the opportunity to gain the efficiencies in our advertising and marketing programmes," said Gary Galanis, a spokesman for Guinness UDV, the first company to advertise.

Since 1996 several national cable TV networks and over two hundred local TV stations - some owned by the broadcast networks like NBC – have accepted commercials for vodka, Scotch whiskey, and rum as well as for lower-alcohol products like liqueurs and blended specialty drinks such as Baileys Original Irish Cream.

"There's a momentum gathering here," said Randy Falco, president for the NBC Television Network division of NBC in New York. "We thought we'd get in front of it with a pretty strict set of guidelines." He went on to say that this "is obviously a sensitive subject" and added that "the standards speak for themselves, particularly as they relate to young people."

Beer and wine advertising has been on television since commercials first appeared. There were no such spots for liquor from 1948, when the distilled spirits industry introduced its voluntary ban, until that ban was lifted in November 1996.

When the ban was lifted, there was a move in Congress and within federal agencies to have it reinstated or formalised in a law. These efforts petered out as the end of the ban did not immediately lead to a flood of liquor commercials.

Gary Galanis claimed that the guidelines under which Guinness UDV will advertise on NBC ought to satisfy the critics because "it's a solid, strict code." There are nineteen conditions, one of which is a provision that the commercials may appear only on programmes where the audience has at least 85 per cent of viewers who are 21 or older. In addition, the advertisements must not promote distilled alcohol products "as a 'mark of adulthood' or 'rite of passage' " and may not show or represent consumption on camera.

An NBC executive said that they had been approached in the past but that until Guinness UDV began talking to NBC several months ago there were never any serious discussions with a company willing to "work with us on the protocols and standards" outlined under the guidelines.

However, George Hacker, of the CSPI, said that he was concerned about the appearance of commercials for hard liquor on broadcast television networks "because of their nature, their broad audience, which is very different from running spots on golf matches or equestrian events" shown on cable networks "where the audience can be carefully targeted." He also said he would like to see "messages that tell the true story" about drinking "that are approved by public health agencies" rather than liquor company executives.

The move is also causing apprehension among medical professionals. According to Dr John Slade, a professor specialising in addiction at the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School at the University of Medicine and Dentistry in New Jersey, "The alcoholic beverage industry seeks to increase its sales in the name of 'moderate drinking.' At the same time, it continues to make money by selling alcohol to heavy drinkers, to underage consumers, and to those whose drinking is acutely dangerous to themselves and others. The industry's professed interest in public health would be less self-serving if it promoted moderate drinking in parallel with effective efforts to reduce immoderate drinking." Public health experts point out that the tragic result is that many young people feel it is perfectly all right to get drunk, as long as they don't get behind the wheel of a car.

As for the three other big broadcast networks, they had similar responses to NBC's decision. Spokesmen for ABC, CBS and Fox Broadcasting all said they had no plans now to change their policies against accepting liquor commercials.

George Hacker is in no doubt about the dangerous consequences of the advertisements for distilled spirits or about the motivation of the alcohol industry: "NBC's shameful acceptance of liquor ads that threaten our children's health and safety is a clear sign that voluntary advertising standards do not work. When they become inconvenient or stand in the way of easy money, they play second fiddle to economic concerns. Remember, that liquor marketers, until 1996, voluntarily stayed off TV, until they decided to reverse the steady decline in liquor consumption and go after the beer industry's customers. This latest assault on America's children demands official action."