Wine Law

is disseminated by mail, whether it appears in a newspaper, magazine, trade booklet, menu, wine card, leaflet, circular, mailer, book insert, catalog, promotional material, sales pamphlet, or any written, printed, graphic, or other matter accompanying the container, representations made on cases, billboard, sign, or other outdoor display, public transit card, other periodical literature, publication, or in a radio or television broadcast, or in any other media”. In order to advertise wine, the USA code imposes Mandatory statements, Legibility of mandatory information and Prohibited practices. In the United States “voluntary codes specify that alcohol advertising should be restricted to media where 71.6% of the expected audience is of legal drinking age (≥21 years), should not depict excessive drinking or acceptance of drunken behavior, and should not claim or represent that alcohol consumption is related to success or status” 34 . Those rules are usually adopted by all countries, and we will see in the following paragraphs. Aligned with the USA legislation, the European Countries adopt quite the same criteria. The national laws have the responsibility over rules on alcohol promotion, but there is a Directive that harmonises the Audiovisual Media Services, which results from a European Court Case. The French Loi Évin 35 of 1991 established several restrictions to broadcasting alcohol advertisements 36 , of which we mention the most relevant: “1. no advertising should be targeted at young people; 2. no advertising is allowed on television or in cinemas; 3. no sponsorship of cultural or sport events is permitted; 4. advertising is permitted only in the press for adults, on billboards, on radio channels (under precise conditions), at special events or places such as wine fairs, wine museums. When advertising is permitted, its content is controlled: i. messages and images should refer only to the qualities of the products such as degree, origin, composition, means of production, patterns of consumption; ii. a health message must be included on each advertisement to 34 Beer Institute, 2018; Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, 2011; Wine Institute, 2011. Cited by LAURA J. FINAN, et. al, available a t https://www.jsad.com/doi/pdf/10.15288/jsads.2020.s19.42, accessed on 27 April 2020. 35 It takes its name from Claude Évin, then Minister of Health, who proposed it to Parliament. Article L3323-2 French Code de la Santé Public. 36 Source : http://www.ias.org.uk/What-we-do/Publication-archive/The-Globe/Issue-2-2004-amp-1- 2004/The-Loi-Evin-a-French-exception.aspx, accessed on 27 April 2020.