Promoting Properly The Importance of the DISCUS Advertising Code
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Written by RICH MANNING
or most businesses, a successful TV or social media ad campaign hinges on keeping a product or service top-of-mind with the target demographic. Forging these connections adds efficiency to advertising dollars and could potentially boost sales effectiveness. This blueprint applies to the distilling industry, but there’s an extra wrinkle. Portraying a healthy relationship with alcohol is an essential part of the formula. Without this message in place, everything that makes imbibing in distilled spirits or cocktails, from the appreciation of flavor and complexity to their ability to bring people together, goes right out the window. This has been the impetus behind the Distilled Spirits Council’s (DISCUS’s) Code of Responsible Practices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing, a guideline to help distillers jumping into the advertising space go about advertising their products in a safe, responsible manner. Formulated in 1934 shortly after Prohibition’s repeal
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and available for DISCUS members and non-members alike, the code gives distillers the tools they need to self-regulate their ad campaigns and ensure the wrong messaging doesn’t happen. “The code holds the spirits industry to a higher standard and ensures products remain above the fray,” explained Courtney Armour, chief legal officer at DISCUS. “It helps us retain reputational value and it puts us in better standing with government agencies like the [Federal Trade Commission]. Above all else, it’s the right thing to do.”
The Code at a Glance DISCUS divides the 24-page code into two sections: code-complaint process and training, and code of responsible practices provisions. The former takes up the code’s first chunk, and it lays out what someone can expect if they flag something in an ad that they feel veers off into irresponsibility. While it may seem unusual to put the complaint process before the advertising standards themselves, this structure serves a specific purpose.
“We realize there may be a lot of people new to the code, from new distillery employees to ad agencies that are new to the industry,” Armour stated. “Putting the code up front will help them understand the code’s context and its scope, which could help answer any questions they may have.” The practice provisions section provides a detailed list of ad practices built around a framework that should make sense to anyone seeking to create a campaign that puts the industry in a positive light. These best practices aren’t anything out of the ordinary and nearly impossible to argue against. Highlights include:
› No non-premise advertising placed
within 500 feet of an established place of worship or school
› Don’t use materials that could direct-
ly appeal to underage drinkers, like cartoon characters
› No depictions of irresponsible drinking
› No use of the term “spring break” › No sexual themes › No promotion of any activity encouraging consumption
excessive
alcohol
According to DISCUS chief of communications and public affairs Lisa Hawkins, the code helps brands to further emphasize the positives surrounding alcohol
[The DISCUS Advertising Code] helps us retain reputational value and it puts us in better standing with government agencies like the [Federal Trade Commission]. Above all else, it’s the right thing to do.”
— Courtney Armour
Chief legal officer, DISCUS
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