Liquor Ads: They need to be limited

By LAURIE LEIBER

For Scripps Howard News Service

For nearly two decades, two U.S. Surgeon Generals - C. Everett Koop and Antonia Novello - and numerous public health organizations have called upon manufacturers of alcoholic beverages to advertise more responsibly.

National polls show that Americans increasingly favor either restricting or banning broadcast alcohol advertising.

But despite this widespread support for advertising reform, the alcohol industry has averted government limits.

During the last 20 years, public health advocates began implementing a new approach to preventing alcohol-related problems. This new public health response is based on a substantial and growing body of evidence that limiting both alcohol advertising and alcohol availability and raising alcohol taxes decreases alcohol-related problems.

Although more research is needed, there is strong scientific evidence that the effects of alcohol advertising, like the effects of tobacco advertising, are not limited to brand selection by adults.

In the past, alcohol-beverage producers have argued that their voluntary public service campaigns are more effective at decreasing alcohol-related problems than are government-imposed limits on alcohol advertising. But while public-service messages may engender good will for the companies sponsoring them, researchers have described these "responsible drinking" spots as thinly disguised drinking promotions.

The longest-running campaign, Anheuser-Busch's "Know When to Say When," omits that sometimes it is not safe to imbibe at all. The campaign also leaves "when" undefined.

Manufacturers of alcoholic beverages also assert that, because responsible advertising is advantageous to the industry, government-imposed restrictions are unnecessary.

Trade groups, representing the three branches of the alcohol industry (wine, beer, and distilled spirits) have adopted voluntary advertising codes. But these voluntary standards have not prevented the brewers from turning Halloween into a beer festival, marketing malt liquor on MTV, or using cute cartoon animals in commercials aired on TV during peak viewing times for young people.

By law, television and radio stations licensed to broadcast on the public airwaves must do so in the public interest.

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) does not collect information on the frequency of alcohol commercials; nor does it gather age information on the viewers of such ads.

The FCC could use such information to set goals for decreasing youth exposure. The agency could also require broadcasters to provide equal time for health-and-safety messages when alcohol commercials air during prime time or sports programs that reach large numbers of underage viewers.

Our government has a legitimate interest in reducing both these costs and the human costs of alcohol-related illness, injury and death.

Restricting the promotion of alcoholic beverages, and particularly their promotion to children, should be part of a comprehensive strategy to abate alcohol-related problems through policy reform.

Laurie Leiber is director of the Center on Alcohol Advertising. Adapted from Priorities Magazine.