by George A. Hacker

About the author: George A. Hacker is director of the Alcohol Policies Project, a program of advocacy group Center for Science in the Public Interest that works to curb alcohol-related problems.

After more than 50 years of honoring its pledge not to advertise distilled spirits in the broadcast media, the liquor industry, in November 1996, finally lost its grip on good corporate citizenship. Following the lead of the Seagram Company, which began airing advertisements for its Crown Royal Canadian whiskey on a Corpus Christi, Texas, television station in June of that year, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) abandoned its long- standing, voluntary ban on broadcast liquor advertisements. As recently as 1993, its president had described the ban to a Senate committee as part of the...