Changes in the self‐regulation guidelines of the US Beer Code reduce the number of content violations reported in TV advertisements

From a public health perspective, alcohol advertising should not be directed at vulnerable groups, nor should it portray excessive drinking or other objectionable content such as illegal activity. To promote the responsible advertising of alcoholic beverages, alcohol industry groups have developed self-regulation guidelines that describe which types of content (and exposure markets) are unacceptable. In 2006 the US Beer Institute revised the content guidelines of the 1997 Beer Code. This study was designed to determine whether these changes made the revised Code more or less likely for expert judges to report guideline violations, and for alcohol advertisements to include otherwise inappropriate content from a public health perspective. Six alcohol advertisements known or suspected to have multiple content violations were rated by 139 experts selected on the basis of their expertise in public health, mental health, alcohol research and marketing. The ads were rated on two occasions with feedback about other viewers' ratings provided at the second rating. The data were collected by means of a computer-based rating program that used multiple items to evaluate the eight major content guidelines of the US Beer Code. The ratings were scored according to both the 1997 and the 2006 versions of the Beer Code. According to the 1997 criteria, raters identified an average of 26 guideline violations across the six ads; the number of violations was reduced to 18 when the 2006 criteria were applied. The difference was statistically significant and was primarily attributable to changes in guidelines dealing with the portrayal of illegal activity, humorous situations and the act of drinking. By removing or revising commonly violated guidelines, the 2006 Beer Code revision permits portrayal of previously objectionable ad content and increases the likelihood that risky drinking behaviours will be portrayed in US beer advertisements. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.