Beam Global, the company that makes Jim Beam bourbon and Canadian Club whiskey, says it will voluntarily adopt a series of steps designed to limit alcohol advertising to youth proposed by a group of state attorneys general, the New York Times reported May 8.

Beam Global said it would only advertise its products in print and broadcast outlets where no more than 25 percent of the audience is under age 21. Trade groups like the Distilled Spirits Council of the U.S. and the Beer Institute advise their members to avoid advertising to audiences with more than 30 percent of underage viewers or readers.

Beer trade groups and an Anheuser-Busch spokesperson said that they have no intention of joining Beam Global or adopting a 15-percent standard proposed by the attorneys general. Beer Institute president Jeff Becker said that the latter would prevent brewers from advertising in publications like "Ebony, Men's Fitness and Shape, and TV broadcasts of the National Hockey League and National Basketball Association."

Despite the agreement, Beam Global maintained that "there is no causal connection between alcohol advertising and underage drinking," to which Maine attorney general Steven Rowe replied, "To say there's no causal connection is to have your head in the sand. It's to not recognize reality."

Rowe said the AGs were "calling on industry members to follow Beam's lead and join the effort to reduce underage drinking.

"I'm not going to speculate about whether we're going to bring lawsuits against any company," he added. "That's always a possibility, but we're hoping that companies will step up."

"We won't comment on what others may do with this," said Chris Swonger, senior vice president for corporate affairs at Beam Global. "But it was an important step forward for our company." Swonger cast the company's decision as strictly business-oriented, not an acknowledgment of any linkage between youth drinking and alcohol advertising.