Beer web sites

[pkbites]

While sUrfingthe web I was looking at some brewery sites. The first thing that strikes me is, they all ask for a date of birth in order to get in. Why? Is there a law that says folks under 21 can’t even read about alcoholic beverages? You don’t have to do that to look at porn websites. I would think that a minor looking at hardcore would be more damaging to them than reading the ingredients of beer, wouldn’t it? Is there some kind of law, or is this just the brewers being anal about things.

Related but unimportant point: Keystone light only has .2% less alcohol & 4 calories less than regular Keystone beer. And it has, in fact, more carbs than the regular version. Odd!

[psycat90]

There is no law stating that you must be 21 to view advertising for alcohol beverages on the internet.

The industry is self-regulated when it comes to advertising on the web, radio, TV, magazines, billboards, etc.

From here :

Each year the alcohol industry spends more than a billion dollars on television, radio, print, and outdoor advertising. Self-regulation plays an important role in the alcohol industry’s overall efforts to address concerns that alcohol advertising not be directed to an underage audience. At the heart of this effort are three trade associations.

The Beer Institute represents the interests of more than 200 brewers who produce more than 90 percent of the beer brewed in America as well as the importers of a majority of the imported beer consumed here.

The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) represents most of the major U.S. distilled spirits marketers; its members produce over 85 percent of the distilled spirits sold in America.

The Wine Institute represents over 300 California vintners; its members market over 75 percent of the wine sold in America and most of the American wines sold abroad.
All three associations have voluntary advertising codes, with similar provisions about the placement and content of ads designed to prevent the marketing of alcohol to underage consumers. In addition, some beverage alcohol companies have their own self-regulatory guidelines. In most cases, the company guides parallel those of the trade associations, although some address specific issues such as marketing at college “spring break” locations.

Link to Beer Institute’s Beer Code (pdf) - List of Beer Institute members

…brewers will require disclosure of a
viewer’s date of birth at the entry to their websites and will post reminders at
appropriate locations in their Web site indicating that brewer products are
intended only for those of legal purchase age. These locations include entrance
into the Web site, purchase points within the Web site, and access into adult-
oriented locations within the Web site, such as virtual bars.

Link to DISCUS Spirit Code - List of DISCUS members

Age verification mechanisms should be employed for DISCUS member-controlled beverage alcohol advertising and marketing websites. They also should contain a reminder of the legal purchase age.

Link to Wine Institute’s Wine Code - Wine Institute member info

There is nothing in the Wine Institute’s code referring to online ads, which is why many winery websites do not have age verification tools like beer and liquor sites do.

[tygerbryght]

As I don’t drink, I wouldn’t normally know a thing about beer ads, but a British friend sent me a link about six weeks ago for an Australian site with one of those ads that people tell their friends about. I went back to his email and tried it again, to be sure it’s still working.

Caution #1: Viewing with dialup is nearly impossible. Viewing with “lite” DSL works well enough, so long as you select “low” as the download rate. I tried medium, and it stopped twice to buffer, but it also went to full screen, from a smallish window, and when it was running, it was quite impressive. I kinda wonder what it would look like with a big pipe.

Caution #2: The audio gets loud, although it starts out at a more moderate volume, and the lyric - if I may call it that - isn’t the most delicate language, although not bad by US standards of “four letter words” - and has the saving grace of being entertaining, even amusing. Probably not “work safe” unless you’re clearly at lunch or it’s after quitting time. You might want to turn the speaker volume down pretty far. You can always rerun it with the volume back up, but in the full screen version at least, you can’t kill it in the middle.

beer ad

Oh, yeah. The Aussies just say it “should only be viewed by adults aged 18 and over”.