When did this happen? I thought there was a US national ban on hard alcohol adverts over the airwaves.
Granted, this was the E! channel, but still.
Does that mean we’ll start seeing cigarette ads soon?
In the recent past, OTTOMH, I can remember ads on the TV for Bombay Sapphire Gin (mmm), Smirnoff Vodka (not just the twists), and Disarono (sp?).
Now that you mention it, I was in the same camp of thinking… though perhaps it’s just that they can’t show people actually drinking it.
I just found this:
I thought it was an FCC thing. I guess not.
Yeah I’ve been seeing commercials for Jim Beam, Jose Cuervo, and a few other types of hard liquor for a while now. I haven’t seen a Jack Daniel’s one, but it wouldn’t supprise me.
I don’t understand why tobacco is illegal and liquor isn’t.
(I mean illegal to advertise on TV…)
Not without a change to federal law.
I’m from Corpus Christi, which a few years ago made the news by being the first market in the country to air a commercial for liquor.
It was an ad for Crown Royal. Featuring a Weimaraner. (One dog brought the newspaper, and the other dog brought the purple bag of Crown. The one who brought the paper got all sad b/c he wasn’t as good a dog, while the other one wagged. This commercial made me sad, because I felt so badly for the newspaper-bearing dog.)
IIRC, from all the excitement at the time, there has never been an official ban on liquor ads on TV. It was a self-imposed “morality” thing that liquor companies observed. Perhaps on the behalf of people like Tipper Gore. Or MADD. Who knows. I don’t recall.
For awhile they were only aired after nine or ten p.m…for all I know it could still be that way. I haven’t really paid attention, and I bartend for a living so I watch a lot of really late-night TV. 
But I do know I’ve seen plenty of 'em. For Smirnoff, Absolut, Tanqueray, Bacardi, Crown, Jack Daniel’s…pretty much all the heavy-hitting brands.
I’ve been seeing TV commercials for Captain Morgan’s for the past few years. They usually feature some dumb-looking beared guy posing like the guy (Captain Morgan, I presume) on the label.
Ah yes, the most perverted ads on television. That Captain gets “a little” of him in the most amazing variety of people.
Heh, the Captain Morgan ads are amusing. I’ve also seen/noticed Smirnoff, Bacardi (tons of these, for each of the flavors and the new Bacardi Breeze stuff) and a metric shit ton of Grey Goose commercials.
It was a self-imposed ban, and I don’t think the Big 3 (NBC, ABC, or CBS) have agreed to run them. Cable is not regulated by the FCC.
Each network has its own limitations, like not airing before noon or not airing in programs geared toward children. Certain sports will not allow hard liquor in their events, but beer and wine may be acceptable.
Bolding mine.
Otto you did notice the date in that quote, right? I’m not saying it isn’t factual, but that date usually requires a bit more fact checking.
I would imagine because nicotine addiction is pretty much a standard feature of smoking, whereas alcoholism is more of an optional extra to drinking, but I could be wrong about that.
Don’t you think that if it were legal to advertise cigarettes on TV that there would be cigarette ads on TV?
They did have cigar and cigarillo ads on TV into the 1980’s didn’t they? I seem to remember Dutch Master ads during NFL games.
Now that you bring it up, I’ve seen those as well.
For some reason I thought it was a watered down fizzy drink thing though.
Shows how much I phase out adverts I guess.