Many of the liquor makers that crafted overtly sexual advertisements or pitched their products in youth-oriented magazines during the past year pulled those ads when confronted by peers, according to a liquor industry report released Monday.
The industry's chief trade group -- the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) -- reported on its efforts to self-police the ads produced by distillers, based on an advertising code that has voluntary guidelines for content and placement. The report covered all of 2004 and cited 14 ads.
The council represents about 85 percent of all distillers; all members complied with the code after being targeted with complaints. Most nonmembers did as well, but some -- whose ads are among the most sexual -- did not.
For instance, a Hennessy ad in Vibe magazine violated the code because at least 70 percent of the hip-hop magazine's audience is estimated to be under 21. In response, Hennessy, owned by LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA, complied by saying future ads will be placed only in subscription copies of Vibe, whose readers are older than newsstand buyers of the magazine.
On the other hand, ads for the small but fast-growing Swedish vodka brand Svedka, distributed by Spirits Marque One LLC, continue to violate the code.
The DISCUS nonmember has cultivated a hip image by hosting celebrity-rich parties. And Svedka ads, which have run in magazines such as Interview, have featured a bottle of vodka being poured on a naked male abdomen accompanied by racy text; a woman on all fours in fishnet stockings with a tray holding drinks balanced on her back with the slogan, "Always a pleasure to serve you"; and vodka being poured into a glass wedged into a woman's cleavage.
The council cited the Svedka ads for violating several industry codes, including one warning against "overt sexual activity" and "promiscuity" and another saying liquor ads should not "degrade the image, form, or status of women."
The report said there had been "no response from the advertiser" for appeals to pull the ads. DISCUS President Peter H. Cressy said his group can only continue to apply "peer pressure" on the vodka-maker to alter its campaign. Svedka's distributor did not return calls for comment.
Some of the liquor industry's tougher critics said yesterday's report is a step in the right direction.
"The fabulous thing about self-regulation is that they can address things that couldn't be touched by a government agency because of the First Amendment," said Janet Evans, a lawyer at the Federal Trade Commission, which monitors advertising. "This is a far step above and beyond what other companies are doing."
Yesterday's report "shows DISCUS has heard the need for more transparency, as recommended by the Federal Trade Commission in 1999," James A. O'Hara III, executive director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University, said in a statement. "At the same time, it is a reminder that the alcohol industry can do more to reduce underage youth exposure to alcohol advertising, and we hope DISCUS will be a leader in such efforts."
