The Beer Institute says that alcohol ads "should not portray beer drinking before or during activities, which for safety reasons, require a high degree of alertness or coordination," but recent ads for Bud Light showed men climbing onto the roofs of their houses to drink beer.

Anheuser-Busch says the ad is a spoof, but critics contend that the company is exploiting a loophole in the industry alcohol standards, the New York Times reported March 29.

"The beer ad code has loopholes that are big enough to drive a team of Clydesdales through," said Laurie Leiber, director for media advocacy at the Marin Institute, who contends that the Beer Institute's advertising standards have been recently weakened by allowing illegal activity to be portrayed if it is "a basic element or feature of a parody or spoof and is readily identifiable as such."

"They're writing guidelines to allow themselves to do what they've been doing all along," Leiber said.

"Our members have maintained high standards of corporate responsibility dating back to the repeal of Prohibition," replied Beer Institute President Jeff Becker. "We have continually updated our advertising and marketing code in response to societal changes and technological advancements."

The spat comes amid increased concern about underage drinking and scrutiny of alcohol advertising aimed at youths. The Beer Institute recently created an independent review panel to respond to complaints about beer ads, and the Federal Trade Commission has signaled its intention to monitor alcohol ad placement and industry self-regulation efforts.

A group of 28 state attorneys general also have been investigating alcohol ads as relates to underage drinking. Maine attorney general Steven Rowe, co-chairman of the Youth Access to Alcohol Committee of the National Association of Attorneys General, called the alcohol industry's self-regulatory structures inadequate. Rowe said that alcohol ads should be barred from all media where no more than 15 percent of the audience is under age 21; the current industry standard is 30 percent.

"We think that the 30 percent standard exposes too many underage drinkers to ads for alcohol," Rowe said. "We know from recent research that exposure to alcohol ads among youths does increase their interest in consuming alcohol."

Beer companies have the alcohol industry's weakest voluntary guidelines on advertising, said James Mosher of the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. "Wine comes out looking the best," he said. "The spirits guidelines are No. 2 and beer fares the worst."

George Hacker of the Center for Science in the Public Interest said that even the Beer Institute's new review panel is flawed, since problem ads are sent to the brewer before being referred to the panel.

"That renders the whole process meaningless, given that many beer ads are designed to air for a short time only," Hacker said. "It's very convenient. When a company is caught, they can simply withdraw the ad, which then eliminates the possibility of review."

Becker said that allowing the independent panel to review ads that are no longer running "would undermine our review board's mission to look at complaints about ads actually in the marketplace."