Liquor Industry Falls Off Wagon Council Votes To Drop Voluntary Ban On Radio And TV Advertising

The liquor industry voted Thursday to drop its decades-old voluntary ban on broadcast advertising, saying it wants to be as free to use radio and television to promote its products as brewers and wine makers are.

Reed Hundt, Federal Communications Commission chairman, said the decision by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States “is disappointing for parents and dangerous for our kids.”

Another critic said the industry’s action marks the start of an open season on marketing liquor to children and teens. But industry officials said liquor marketers will advertise as responsibly on radio and television as they have for years in print.

“You’re not going to turn on the television and see floods and floods of distilled-liquor ads,” said Fred Meister, president and chief executive of the liquor council.

But the big broadcast networks may not even give the liquor advertisers a chance. CBS, ABC and NBC each said Thursday they have no plans to change their long-standing policies against accepting liquor ads. A call to the Fox Network was not returned immediately.

The liquor group’s policy-makers voted unanimously to revise the industry’s code of practices to permit liquor advertising for the first time since 1936 on radio and 1948 on television.