Alcohol Billboards

Analyzing Alcohol Advertisements & Marketing
A resource for
educators

©2004,
Frank Baker,
media educator

Alcohol Billboards


Bob Pezzolesi of  Syracuse, NY sends along this photo of a billboard in his area and asks: how old are the young people portrayed in the ad?
I responded: 15 to 17 years old..what do you think?


He includes the following info:

From the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, Inc.
(DISCUS) Code Of Responsible Practices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing:

Beverage alcohol products should not be advertised or promoted by any person who is below the legal purchase age or who is made to appear to be below the legal purchase age. To help ensure that individuals in beverage alcohol advertising are and appear to be above the legal purchase age, models and actors employed should be a minimum of 25 years old, substantiated by proper identification and should reasonably appear to be over 21 years of age.


tecate-billboard.jpg

A billboard advertising Tecate beer at an undetermined location is seen in this undated handout file photo. Several Hispanic lawmakers and activists called on
a beer distributor Friday, May 14, 2004, to pull the billboard ads, saying the ads and their tag line, ‘Finally, A Cold Latina,’ are offensive and propagates negative Hispanic stereotypes. ‘These kind of ads promote sort of racist stereotypes of Latina women,’ said Zelenne Cardenas, who organized a rally near one of the billboards in Los Angeles Friday. ‘As a Latina, I’m tired of being portrayed as sort of a hot-to-trot woman.’ 



Billboard photographed in Columbia, South Carolina, March 2003
(located at busy intersection of Harden & Gervais St. close to university campus)

More billboards