Broadcast television hitting the hard stuff more often these days
Posted on Mon Jun 15 2009
The heightened presence of liquor advertising on television is breeding, among other things, humorously obvious remarks. "With the economy and what's happening to corporations," says Matt Carroll, Patron's chief marketing officer, "more and more people are accepting liquor advertising." Funny how that happens in a recession. Advertising revenue is down, and booze is a $451 million business. Traditionally, the broadcast networks—ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox—draw the line at ads for anything stronger than wine and beer because not all of their viewers are 21 or over. But honestly, that's a pretty quaint distinction to make these days. As long as there are worldly friends, older brothers and aunts who hug just a little too long, kids will know and understand the function of alcohol. Plus, hard-liquor ads usually don't stoop to the same level of Neanderthal stupidity that beer commercials do.
—Posted by David Kiefaber
