Standard Drinks Equivalence Alcohol and Health Underage Drinking Distilled Spirits Advertising Distilled Spirits Excise Taxes Product Tasting Fact Sheet

• The right to advertise is constitutionally protected commercial free speech under the First Amendment. The First Amendment protection afforded to beverage alcohol advertising is equal in scope to the First Amendment protection afforded to the advertising of other legal products and services.
• The fact that several federal agencies, such as the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Federal Trade Commission, as well as state agencies regulate beverage alcohol, does not narrow the protection to which beverage alcohol advertising is entitled under the First Amendment. Most, if not all, American businesses also are regulated at both the federal and state levels, and their constitutional rights are not more narrow or lesser as a consequence.
• In 44 Liquormart Inc. v. Rhode Island, a landmark commercial speech decision, the Supreme Court unanimously reaffirmed the beverage alcohol industry's commercial free speech rights, and the principle that beverage alcohol is afforded the same protection under the First Amendment as other legal products and services.
• The Courts, on several occasions, have ruled that truthful and non- misleading advertising is an essential component of our free enterprise system and withholding it deprives consumers of knowledge that is essential to making an informed decision. Justice John Paul Stevens, in the 44 Liquormart decision, wrote: "The First Amendment directs us to be especially skeptical of regulations that seek to keep people in the dark for what the government perceives to be their own good."
• Restrictions on beverage alcohol advertising violate the First Amendment because there is no scientific basis to conclude that advertising restrictions will "directly and materially advance" the government's interest in addressing alcohol abuse and underage drinking. The Supreme Court reaffirmed this principle in 44 Liquormart. The Court ruled that Rhode Island failed to prove that its price advertising ban advanced the state's interest in "promoting temperance."
• By the government's own admission, this "First Amendment" test cannot be met. The Department of Health and Human Services reports that "[r]esearch has yet to document a strong relationship between alcohol advertising and alcohol consumption." Similarly, the Federal Trade Commission concluded that there is "no reliable basis to conclude that alcohol advertising significantly affects consumption, let alone abuse."
• For the vast majority of consumers who use the product responsibly, alcohol is not a problem. For the small minority who drink irresponsibly, advertising restrictions are not the answer. A comprehensive approach stressing education, treatment and enforcement of existing laws is the solution to the problem of irresponsible drinking.
• Through its extensive public education programs, the spirits industry urges responsible consumption by those adults who choose to drink and strongly opposes underage drinking and irresponsible drinking by any group. These programs include, among others, numerous public service advertising campaigns; funding the development of educational materials for use in schools; and cooperative education programs with government agencies and other groups. October 25, 1996