A single voice raised in protest can have an impact on public policy, advises Laurie Leiber, director of the Center for Alcohol Advertising. As an example, she points to a series of letters she wrote regarding a beer ad she saw broadcast during a children's television program.Leiber was watching The Simpsons with her nine-year-old son one evening when a commercial came on touting a joint promotion between 7-Eleven convenience stores and Budweiser beer -- a clear violation of a voluntary beer-industry code of responsibility that prohibits advertising on children's shows.
Concerned, Leiber decided to write letters of protest to the TV station that ran the ad, to 20th Century Television (the network the Simpsons appears on), to 7-Eleven owner The Southland Corporation, to Budweiser maker Anheuser-Busch, and to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which regulates some advertising practices. In her letters, Leiber spoke primarily as the mother of a young child, not as the head of a national organization. "I thought we were being responsible parents by limiting our son's TV viewing to one and a half hours a day. Yet Jacob is still getting a daily dose of beer commercials," she wrote in one letter.
Not everyone responded. But Leiber got a quick reply from Southland's national advertising manager for 7-Eleven, Julie Irsch, who wrote, "You are absolutely correct that this ad should not have run during The Simpsons, given that children do watch this program. Unfortunately, our media buyers were focused on the fact that we were trying to reach people who eat fast food and didn't consider the content of this particular advertisement. I have asked them to discontinue running this ad on this program and we will be more careful in the future to consider not only the advertised product, but the content of the commercial itself."
Leiber's letter also generated a reply from the FTC, which for the last two years has been investigating advertising practices by the alcohol industry, specifically focusing on ads that might appeal to underage drinkers. "The Beer Institute's self-regulatory code recently was modified to provide that beer advertising should not be placed on television programs where most of the audience is reasonably expected to be below the legal purchase age. It is likely that the audience for The Simpsons will consist primarily of persons below the legal purchase age on some occasions," wrote the FTC's Janet M. Evans. "Accordingly, we have forwarded your letter to Anheuser-Busch to alert them of the need to focus on spot and co-operative ad placements when evaluating their compliance with self-regulatory provisions."
Given the FTC's current lack of a regulatory role in television alcohol advertising, Leiber's FTC letter and the subsequent agency reply to Anheuser Busch could be insignificant. Then again, said Leiber, the FTC letter puts the brewer on notice that the agency is watching their advertising practices. And Leiber notes that dissenting messages can have an impact as FTC meets with alcohol industry leaders as part of its ongoing inquiry on alcohol ads.
The letter to Southland produced tangible results -- a new process for screening ad buys. Leiber noted that because of the nature of its business, the company is very sensitive to the issue of underage drinking, making it a good target for public feedback. She believes that, in this case, a letter from any concerned parent would have had just as much impact as hers did, notwithstanding her professional affiliation. "People can make changes without being a university professor or an elected official," said Leiber. "The misconception is that agencies like the FTC regularly monitor alcohol advertising, but that's not true. The best monitors are the people who watch TV."
Media buyers -- the people and companies that purchase air time on radio and TV for ad agencies -- are the "silent partners in advertising," Leiber noted. "They would be worth targeting for a code of responsibility to prevent inappropriate ads." One media buyer who recently spoke with Leiber agreed that there are abuses in the industry and promised to work on such a code.
Consumers can make small but significant changes in other ways, too, Leiber noted. For example, she recalled going to a store in a local mall and seeing a prominently displayed dancing mechanical Coors can, which she said "dazzled" her young daughter. Leiber expressed her concerns to the store manager (again, speaking primarily as a parent, not an advocate), who immediately told an employee to remove the display.
"Consumers have to recognize that they do have a great deal of power in the marketplace," she noted. "I try to present myself as a slightly more knowledgeable ordinary person" -- a definition that fits most other people working on substance abuse prevention and treatment issues, as well. "Sometimes people just need a little push" to get them to change business practices they feel vaguely uncomfortable with, added Leiber. "If they have a letter in hand from a coalition or student group, it can provide some cover for them to go to their boss and say 'can we not do this?'" she said.
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