Social Media: New Best Practices for Spirits
The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (“DISCUS”), which represents spirits manufacturers and suppliers, this week released new guidelines (PDF) for marketing and promoting alcoholic beverage products via social media and other digital platforms.
While guidelines such as these are not binding, and not directly enforced by state or federal regulators, they may, over time, become “industry standard” practices that will influence agency interpretations and civil litigation on related subjects. This is especially likely to happen in the case where statutes, regulations, and case law may otherwise struggle to keep up with the pace of electronic marketing strategy, especially in the social media context. Similar self-regulatory codes have been adopted by the Wine Institute and the Beer Institute, though to date these have less specifically addressed social media issues.
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