• April 12, 2012

The Federal Trade Commission has ordered 14 major alcoholic beverage advertisers to provide data for the agency's new study on the effectiveness of voluntary industry guidelines in reducing marketing/advertising to underage audiences.

The compulsory process orders were sent to the advertisers this week.

This fourth study will be the first to include data on alcoholic beverage makers' Internet/digital marketing and data-collection practices.

As for previous studies, the FTC is also gathering advertising spending and placement data and background information about the advertisers' business practices.

Recommendations from past studies (in 1999, 2003 and 2008) resulted in agreements by the Beer institute, the Wine Institute and the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. to adopt a new ad packement standard; buying guidelines for ad placements in print and on TV, radio and the Internet; a requirement that suppliers conduct periodic internal adits of past placements; and systems for external review of complaints about compliance.

For the latest study, the FTC sought public comments in March and November 2011.