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/