January 25, 2009 by Matt Thomas
For ages the advertising of hard liquor using Adwords was flatly forbidden. Adwords had a no nonsense approach, no mention or implication of the good stuff was to be used on their platform, whatsoever. Recently however, the credit-crunch amongst other things has forced Google to reappraise its values and perhaps look a little less harshly on the multi-billion dollar alcahol industry.
The search engine leader started last year by allowing the advertising of certain beers and followed that up recently by relaxing the regulations on hard liquors like whisky and tequila. Adwords have however, stopped short of fully lifting the ban – they’ve just fudged it slightly. So, if you’re a purveyor of hard alcohol online what can and can’t you do?
Well basically it amounts to this. You cannot ‘directly promote the sale of hard alcahol,’ however, you are allowed to promote it as part of a recipe. You may also create adverts, ‘with the sole purpose of branding.’
Still confused? I don’t blame you. Okay, what I think they mean by branding is this, anything that doesn’t directly offer the sale of alcohol. Stuff that promotes the product as a concept or promotes its flavour/image is fine i.e., Describing something’s ‘cool crisp taste,’ or ‘earthy flavour,’ s perfectly okay, blatantly stating ‘Cheap Vodka available $6.99 a litre!’ isn’t.
Basically you need to get creative. Have a look at other adverts to get a better idea of what you can get away with.
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