PAST ARTICLES AND EDITORIAL BOARDS Volume V, No. 2 - 1997
"ONE BOURBON, ONE SCOTCH, ONE BEER": EACH "SPIRIT" SHOULD HAVE AN
EQUAL, BUT LIMITED, OPPORTUNITY TO ADVERTISE ON TELEVISION
Note
Anthony D. DellaCroce
5 J.L. & Pol'y 545 (1997)
On November 8, 1996, the hard-liquor industry voted to end its self-imposed, forty-eight year ban on television advertising. This momentous decision came after Seagram's, a Canadian whiskey company, began airing pilot commercials in local stations around the country. The industry-wide ban, imposed in part to appease the lingering Prohibition sentiments in the U.S., was now over and television advertising sparked a new interest for liquor producers.

Alarmed by the possibility of a new trend in liquor advertising, Representative Joseph Kenney proposed the Comprehensive Alcohol Abuse Prevention Act in 1996. It allows hard-liquor producers to advertise on television, a privilege long enjoyed by beer and wine producers, but imposes strict limitations on the modes of advertisement. For example, it outlaws any liquor ads between the hours of 7 a.m. and 10 p.m.

This note contends that the hard-liquor industry ought to have the privileges of television advertising, but argues that the limitations set forth by Kennedy's proposed bill meet the standard of constitutionality as established by the U.S. Supreme Court. The law advances a substantial government interest and it is necessary to meet the government's needs.