Information for this blog post can be found here.

Be smart about how you advertise and market your beer. Common sense is important here. Always portray drinking beer in a responsible way.

Beer advertising and marketing materials should NOT:

  • Portray, encourage, or condone drinking and driving;
  • Depict situations where beer is being consumed excessively, involuntarily, or as part of a drinking game;
  • Portray persons lacking control over their behavior as a result of consuming beer;
  • Portray or imply illegal activity as a part of drinking beer;
  • Make representations about unsubstantiated health benefits;
  • Claim or represent that individuals cannot obtain social, professional, educational, athletic, or financial success or status without beer consumption;
  • Claim or represent that individuals cannot solve social, personal, or physical problems without beer consumption;
  • Promote underage drinking;
  • Contain sexually explicit, lewd, or demeaning brand names, language, text, graphics, photos, etc. and
  • Contain derogatory or demeaning text or images.

There, now you have a litany of don’ts for marketing and advertising beer.

What else do you need to be aware of?

*Your advertising should focus ONLY on adult consumers of legal drinking age.
*Beer advertising and marketing materials should NOT disparage competing beers.
*Beer can be advertised and marketed on college campuses or at college-sponsored events only when permitted by the appropriate college policy.

Advertising with digital media

For the sake of this article digital media is all beer-branded digital advertising and marketing placements made by or under the control of a brewer. Brewer-owned or controlled or third-party Internet and/or mobile sites, commercial marketing e-mails, downloadable content, SMS and MMS messaging, and social media sites are examples of digital media that could potentially be under the control of a brewery.

*Brewers should require the disclosure of a viewer’s date of birth with a message indicating that brewers’ products are intended only for those of legal drinking age.

Where should this disclosure be?

  • At entry of website;
  • When you download for permanent use media with or without access to a brewer’s website; and
  • With a third-party compliant digital media site that includes interactive features in brewer advertisements.
*Brewers need to maintain privacy policies:
  • Brewers cannot collect information from viewers who identify themselves as underage;
  • Cannot sell the personal information they collect from legal drinking age consumers;
  • Keep customer information secure; and
  • Employ an opt-in feature to receive communications from a brewer, as well as an opt-out feature, in their communications with customers.

Contact us!

If you have any questions please do not hesitate to email me at john@beerlawcenter.com or john@mathesonlawoffice.com or call 919-335-5291.

Be sure to check out Beer Law Center and Matheson Law Office for all things NC legal.

Contact the Brewers Association

https://www.brewersassociation.org/