An Evaluation of the US Beer Institute's Self-regulation Code: Governing the Content of Beer Advertising

Background. This study evaluated advertising code violations in the US Beer Institute guidelines for responsible advertising. A Delphi rating technique was used to evaluate all beer ads (N = 289) broadcast in national markets in the USA between 1999 and 2008 during college basketball championship games. Methods. The ratings were completed twice by 15 public health professionals to evaluate the content of alcohol advertisements (e.g., perceived age of actors, portrayals of excessive drinking). Results. Depending on the code version, exclusion criteria and scoring method, the expert raters identified between 35% and 74% of the ads had code violations. Regardless of the scoring procedure, Anheuser-Busch products had the highest prevalence of code violations (ranging from 78% to49%) relative to other brands. Guidelines most likely to be violated referred to the following types of content: the suggestion that people cannot obtain social, professional, educational, athletic or financial success or status without drinking beer; depictions of “the act of drinking,” and the use of symbols, language, and considered to be appealing “primarily to persons under the legal purchase age.” Conclusion. Violations of the content guidelines of the US Beer Institute Code are prevalent in ads broadcast during a major sports event that appeals primarily to US college age students. The findings are consistent with evidence from other countries showing that alcohol industry self-regulation policies are ineffective in preventing the exposure of young persons and other vulnerable populations from inappropriate ad content.