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Spirits Council tracks ads, keeps distillers on their
toes Complaint review
clears Heaven Hill April 1, 2007
By Alex Davis
The Courier-Journal A bottle of vodka shaped like a water pipe and an advertisement for Kentucky bourbon were among 16 marketing campaigns reviewed last year by an industry trade group that responds to complaints about alcohol-related advertising. Between July 1 and Dec. 31, an ethics review board organized by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States found that nine of the ads violated the group's code of social responsibility.
The Florida-based company that imports the vodka from Holland did not return telephone messages seeking comment. In the bourbon ad, two men are fishing from boats on a lake. A bottle of Evan Williams sits in the foreground, with the caption, "The longer you wait… the better it gets." A complaint submitted to the council stated that the ad was inappropriate because drinking and boating can be a safety hazard. The review board disagreed, in part because the fishermen in the picture weren't consuming alcohol. Evan Williams is made by Heaven Hill Distilleries Inc. of Bardstown, Ky. Larry Kass, a company spokesman, said Heaven Hill respects the ethics code, even though it isn't a member of the spirits council. Kass said the council's rules are viewed as the industry standard, and they act as the foundation for Heaven Hill's own social responsibility guidelines. Members of the spirits council include Louisville-based Brown-Forman Corp., which makes Jack Daniel's whiskey, and Beam Global Spirits & Wine, which makes Jim Beam bourbon. There were no complaints targeting Brown-Forman in the most recent period. One complaint was filed against Beam Global for a billboard depicting its Sauza tequila, but the spirits council didn't ask the company to remove the ad. Seven of the 16 complaints focused on tequila and margarita-related products. Patron Spirits Co. had three of them. In one of the company's ads that has since been dropped, a shirtless man is lying in bed with a woman under a sheet. An open bottle of ultra-premium tequila sits nearby. A tagline next to the man reads "the perfect gift." The tagline next to her says "the perfect one night stand." The council ruled that the ad inappropriately used sexual prowess as a selling point for the brand. Patron also agreed to remove a similar ad in which two female models are posed near cocktail glasses -- presumably filled with tequila -- under separate captions that read "the real thing" and "battery operated." The roots of the alcohol industry's code of ethics can be traced to the early 1930s, just after the repeal of Prohibition. The spirits council claims that its members have fully complied with all of its review board's decisions, and that an overwhelming majority of nonmembers also comply. "These results show that the code review process continues to have a positive and significant impact in the marketplace and that the industry's self-regulation works," Peter Cressy, the council's president and chief executive, said in a statement last week in announcing the board's latest decisions. Other complaints submitted to the spirits council in the second half of last year: Two ads placed in Spin magazine -- for Silver Patron tequila and Hennessy Very Special Cognac -- were removed after research showed the magazine's readership did not meet a minimum standard of having at least 70 percent of its audience be 21 years or older. An ad for 1800 Tequila depicting a man licking a woman's shoulder was not deemed to be inappropriate or degrading to women. The brand is made by Skyy Spirits. A billboard for Smirnoff Ice promoting free music downloads was not found to be age-inappropriate because 93 percent of the potential users of the music site in the promotion were at least 21. Ads for Jose Cuervo tequila on the social-networking site Myspace.com were not found to be age-inappropriate because demographic data showed 78 percent of the site's users are at least 21. A product placement for Smirnoff Vodka in the James Bond movie "Casino Royale" drew 117 complaints -- the most of any advertisement -- but was not considered inappropriate after reviewing demographic data for the age of the audience. Reporter Alex Davis can be reached at (502) 582-4644. |
