‘Big Alcohol’ releases new social media marketing guidelines

A group of leading distillers in the US and Europe will adopt a new code of conduct aimed at limiting which websites they can market their products on.

According to the guidelines, developed by the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) and the European Forum for Responsible Drinking, distillers will have to limit marketing to websites in which “at least 71.6% of the audience is reasonably expected to of the legal purchase age”. In much of the US, this is 21.

The distillers will still, therefore, be able to advertise on Facebook, where the estimated over-21 audience is 82.22%, Twitter, where it is 86.86%, and YouTube, with 80.96%, DISCUS said in a statement, citing Nielsen ratings from August.

“Social media has become an increasingly important marketing channel to reach adult consumers of legal purchase age,” DISCUS president Peter Cressy said in a statement.

“These new digital guidelines reflect our companies’ strong commitment to extend their responsible marketing practices to these emerging media platforms.”

The new guidelines reportedly contain a revised privacy policy, a commitment to root out inappropriate user-generated material from websites and instructions urging users to forward downloadable digital content only to adults 21 and up.

A number of well-known distillers and alcohol manufacturers have signed up to the agreement, including US brands Bacardi and Beam, Britain’s Diageo — maker of Guinness, Johnnie Walker and Smirnoff — and France’s Pernod Ricard, Moet Hennessy and Remy Cointreau.

Diageo recently landed a multi-million dollar advertising deal with Facebook, which would involve the two companies working closely together to make the most out of Facebook’s 800-million users.

In the wake of the announcement, health experts warned that an increase in alcohol advertising on Facebook could fuel underage drinking.

The new guidelines have been met with similar concerns.

Alcohol Justice research director Sarah Mart called the guidelines “a new low point in Big Alcohol self-regulation.”

The San Francisco-based group devotes itself to curtailing alcohol promotion.

“Big Alcohol is spending more than ever before to exploit users, particularly young people, by digitally befriending them and seamlessly integrating alcohol brands into their online lives,” Mart said in a statement.

“Meanwhile, the industry front group keeps spinning the same old self-regulation rhetoric for members to hide behind.”

DISCUS says the new guidelines apply to “all branded digital marketing communications, including social networking sites, websites, blogs, mobile communications and other applications”.