# Selling malt beverages or liquor? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 12, 2002, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602 "2002-06-12T06:12:31Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 6:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602/1 "2002-06-12T06:12:31Z")
Smirnoff, Bacardi, Captain Morgan, Skyy, etc. Are malt beverages some wave of the future, or are these companies just finding a loophole for advertising liquor on TV? ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602/2 "2002-06-12T21:38:29Z")
It’s Zima, same basic alcohol base. This is so they can sell it along with beer and wine in most states. Every so often they introduce these things in waves. Same with the Jack Daniels and other drinks. They’re all basically flavored Zima, wine coolers for the masses. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602/3 "2002-06-12T21:55:39Z")
Yeah, they’re all basically a type of beer, flavored with things other than hops. They’re not “liquor.” And incidentally, it’s not a matter of finding loopholes in a law. There’s no law against advertising liquor on TV. The stations voluntarily choose not to do so, for PR reasons, I suppose. ---
**Author:** ![Ferrous](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/8e7dd6/32.png) [@Ferrous](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferrous)\ **Post date:** [June 12, 2002, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602/4 "2002-06-12T22:11:07Z")
Oh, slight correction to above post…I did some checking, and it appears that the liquor manufacturers are also a part of the voluntary ban on radio/TV advertising. ---
**Author:** ![Banger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8491ac/32.png) [@Banger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Banger)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 12:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602/5 "2002-06-13T00:36:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Ferrous \* > \*\*Yeah, they’re all basically a type of beer, flavored with things other than hops. They’re not “liquor.” > \*\* I understand that they’re not liquor, and are like Zima and those St. Ides fruit flavored malt beverages. My point is that the brand names I mentioned in my original post are for types of liquor, although the particular products advertised are “malt liquor”. I’m wondering if the companies are just selling malt beverages, or if they’re trying to sell their name, i.e., have ads for malt beverages with the Smirnoff name to have the name Smirnoff on TV, with the hope that it will increase the sales of the vodka that they cannot advertise on TV. Perhaps it’s both, but considering how long Zima has been around, not to mention the cheap fruity malt beverages, it seems strange that so many brands that normally just sell liquor are introducing these new drinks now. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602/6 "2002-06-13T03:00:16Z")
Alchohol is alchohol is alchohol. Be it in liquor, wine or beer. It’s the percentage that matters. ---
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [June 13, 2002, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/selling-malt-beverages-or-liquor/113602/7 "2002-06-13T03:50:28Z")
I believe it goes in cycles. There are a bunch of those drinks already on the market, things like Tennesee Mud or some such thing. They were introduced along with many others and only a few survived. Wine coolers were very big and have dropped off considerably. The liquor market is possibly very cyclical. People get over the novelty of the new drinks and they drop off the market. Every once in a while it’s time to introduce new ones and grab a chunk of the summer market and hope you drink catches on enough to survive. The liquor makers (there aren’t all that many left, many are parts of larger conglomerates) keep an eye on their competition and introduce similar products all the time. You don’t think it’s coincidence that Coke with Lemon and Pepsi Twist came on the market at the same time?