Janice Shaw Crouse of Concerned Women of America is not pleased that NBC O&O WNBC-TV New York has decided to go ahead and air ads for distilled spirits. She said the promise that the ads will not air until after 11PM is meaningless, given the popularity of late sports and comedy programming among teens and young underage adults. "With so-called hard liquor more popular with young people — especially young women — the decision to promote distilled spirits through a medium that is known to influence young people will have disastrous results," she said. Crouse concluded, "We cannot say that we care about our nation’s children and then turn around and make marketing decisions that put them at risk."
TVBR observation: We have mixed feelings about this sort of thing, on many different levels. First of all, when we were growing up we did not need television to clue us in to the wide range of new experiences and substances available to us. Then there’s the age-old argument that if you’re old enough to vote and, more to the point, to put on a uniform and die for your country, you should be considered old enough to have a beer, and see a liquor ad. On the other hand, we certainly not in favor of road fatalities, and we understand why cigarettes are banished from the airwaves. On the competitive front, the distilled beverage community argues that being denied access to the airwaves that beer and wine companies are free to use puts them at a competitive disadvantage. Should they get more freedom or should beer/wine be restricted? This, in short, is a complex issue. Any thoughts? That’s what the RBR/TVBR Bounceback department is for.
