Advertising Restrictions

[Hellion]

I can't speak for anywhere else, but advertising beer in Australia is a competitive and difficult game. They are by far the highest budget ads in the country. And like all good ads, are expected to stick in the mind of the viewer... so much so that they remember the product.

The catch is that the government has huge restrictions on what can be shown in relation to advertising alcohol. For example you can't show somebody intoxicated. You can't show any beneficial side affects of the brew itself. I don't even think you can actually show someone drinking. This makes advertising beer much harder than you'd think.

Over the last 10 years I've seen some fantastic beer related commericals in Australia, and there are plenty of them on youtube if you care to search. One which is sticking with me at the moment is this...



Whether YOU like it or not is not the point. I probably won't switch to carlton dry. But they have at least got the name in my head, which is half the battle. This is one of a series of ads. To be quite honest it's the only one I think is any good.

Anyway, this is strictly posted as an insight to the creative red tape dodging beer companies display in the name of advertising in Australia. Do similar restrictions exist in the UK or US or Canada? Any examples to share?

[MetalBlade]

Yeah some restrictions do apply here in the UK.
More or less the same as yours, where they can't show somebody drunk, or make out that it is good for you.
We can show people drinking alcohol though, although I think alcohol ads have to be shown after 9pm watershed. I might be wrong though.
Another thing is that our alcohol ads have a message on the bottom of the screen which basically tells you to enjoy alcohol sensibly.

I loved that skeet shooting with a tank ad though.
It puts the phrase "dry dream" out in the public domain, which is the best thing any ad firm can do.
It gets people talking about the product and gives them a natty catchphrase to associate with the product.

One of our top ad campaigns is for a vodks mixer drink called WKD, and the theme is that someone does something heinous but cool, and the tagline is "Have you got a WKD side?"

Example:


This series has spawned many spoof ads, one of the best is this one: