Seagram Ads To Encourage Responsibility

Seagram is going to open its liquor advertisements with a six-second statement encouraging viewers to drink responsibly as it seeks wider clearance for its commercials on local television stations.

The distilled spirits industry has run into resistance from station owners since November, when it dropped its decades-old, self-imposed ban against broadcast ads for whiskey, gin, rum and other forms of hard liquor.

Montreal-based Seagram led the way, putting ads for its Crown Royal Canadian whisky on a Texas TV station in June 1996.

President Clinton, government regulators and advocacy groups criticized the industry for dropping its broadcast advertising ban, saying the ads for liquor would encourage youngsters to drink. The move also has prompted calls for regulating beer and wine commercials.

Seagram says it should be free to use the broadcast medium for advertising, just as brewers and winemakers are.

But some stations have refused to run its ads even though they included a written but unspoken message encouraging responsible drinking.

Arthur Shapiro, head of marketing for the Seagram Americas division, said the message gets more prominence by having a narrator recite it at the start of the TV ads.

“People of legal drinking age should enjoy alcohol responsibly but don’t drink if you’re under 21,” says the first statement that will be heard in all Seagram liquor commercials by October.