Alcoholic beverage industry to now publish ad complaints

Food & Drink Weekly, March 14, 2005

The Distilled Spirits Council (DISCUS) is to publish a report about complaints on specific alcohol advertisements, decisions of the industry's internal review board and actions taken by each advertiser, for the first time in its 70-year history. The Distilled Spirits Council's president Peter Cressy said: "This demonstrates our industry's strong commitment to responsibility. Further, by releasing Code Review Board reports, we believe it will make clear that self-regulation works and will encourage full compliance with the Code and Code Review Board decisions...the issuance of public reports will make the spirits industry's self-regulatory process more visible, transparent and understandable to the public."

DISCUS's Code of Responsible Practices for Beverage Alcohol Advertising and Marketing provides for a Code Review Board, comprised of senior member company representatives. It is charged with reviewing complaints about advertising and marketing materials in the marketplace. Additionally, the Code includes an advisory board made up of outside experts from academia, government and broadcasting.

The first report, released today, includes 15 complaints about the content or placement of specific distilled spirits print advertisements, marketing and website materials that ran in 2004. Each complaint summary in the report identifies the advertisement, advertiser, nature of the complaint, the Code Review Board decision and the subsequent action of the advertiser. The report also provides information on how to file a complaint.

"This has implications beyond the beverage alcohol industry. In an era where corporate responsibility is high in people's minds, this is an example of how an industry can effectively regulate itself and raise public confidence," said Cressy. Future public complaint reports will be issued semi-annually.