DISCUS Guidelines for Alcohol Advertising

It’s all fun and games, until we accidentally market booze to a minor. The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) issues guidelines for responsible alcohol advertising and marketing on social networking sites and other digital communications platforms. Do you know all of the requirements? Here’s a little refresher!

• Digital marketing communications are intended for adults of legal purchase age.
• Digital marketing communications should be placed only in media where at least 71.6 percent of the audiences is of the legal purchase age.
• Digital marketing communication that involves direct interaction with a user should require age affirmation prior to engagement.
• User-generated content on a site or page controlled by the brand must be monitored and moderated on a regular basis.
• Digital marketing communications that are intended to be forwarded by users should include instructions that the content shouldn’t be forwarded to individuals below the legal purchase age.
• Digital marketing communications must respect user privacy.

We also love this Sprout Social article: Please Link Responsibly: Social Media Guidelines for Alcohol Marketing.