Top drinks brands such as Smirnoff and baileys have agreed to introduce a code of practice for ads on Facebook and other social media sites.
The move follows an initiative by The European Forum for Responsible Drinking (EFRD), which represents the largest alcoholic spirits manufacturers in Europe and America, such as Diageo.
The new guidelines will extend responsible alcohol advertising to brand pages on Facebook, blogs and mobile apps.
Under the guidelines, advertising will only be placed in environments where more than 70 per cent of viewers are over 18.
Furthermore, those aged 18 and under will be banned from accessing pages for the brands on Facebook and other social networking sites.
The guidelines will also see inappropriate content removed from social media sites for the brands and a commitment to promoting responsible drinking.
The drinks industry sees self-regulation as key to avoiding a ban on promotion, such as that imposed on tobacco firms.
The new rules will focus on “responsible drinking and consistent age checking”, the EFRD said. Firms will also remove “inappropriate user-generated content” from their brands’ pages on Facebook, for instance.
Alan Butler, Chairman of the European Forum for Responsible Drinking (EFRD), which created the guidelines in conjunction with the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), said: “Digital marketing is becoming increasingly important in our engagement with consumers. These new guidelines will ensure that we apply the same high standards to all new media channels and technologies such as Mobile applications or social media platforms such as Facebook”.
http://www.efrd.org/
