Hard Liquor Biz Pushes for TV Ads

N E W   Y O R K, May 30 -- The liquor industry is trying to break the ice with television.

Long banished from running its spots on television by an informal but durable agreement among the broadcast networks and their local affiliates, sellers of distilled drinks are making a concerted push in 2001 to get their commercials on the air.

Their pitch: There's no difference between beer ads, a staple of televised sportscasts, and ads for the distilled drinks — whiskey, gin, and the like — sold by the liquor industry. And, they say, with television ad sales slowing, the time is ripe for their commercials.

"We frankly view ourselves as being discriminated against," says Frank Coleman of the National Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, or DISCUS, an industry lobbying group in Washington.

Indeed, representatives of the $35 billion annual industry — who prefer to call their drinks "distilled spirits" instead of hard liquor — fume as they watch beer commercials spawn catch phrases and cult celebrities over the years, like Budweiser's current "Whassup?" ads or Bud Lite's iconic 1980s dog, Spuds McKenzie.

"It motivates us and it helps us make the fairness argument," Coleman adds.

Take our liquor ads ballot.

No Government Ban

Contrary to common perception, there is no government ban on hard liquor commercials on television, as there is for cigarettes. The ongoing ban is a voluntary one that dates back to the introduction of the medium.

And it is not completely enforced: Canadian distilled drink giant Seagram broke the barrier with a cable commercial in 1996, and since then, the industry has seen broadcast ads as a distinct possibility. But distilled drink makers spent under $1 million on television ads last year, out of a total of $322 million in advertising expenditures.

With this in mind, DISCUS had Jim Rogers, head of Sunbelt Communications, an owner of television stations, cut a spot this spring in which he urges his fellow broadcasters to consider running liquor commercials.