Numerous public health and safety, substance abuse prevention, medical (including the American Medical Association and the American Academy of Pediatrics), child welfare and faith groups are asking CBS to restore its voluntary ban on hard-liquor advertising and recognize the need to protect young people from an expanded deluge of broadcast alcohol advertising (link to letter below).

CBS effectively dropped its longstanding voluntary ban on liquor ads on February 8, 2009, when CBS-owned stations and affiliates ran a prime-time promotion for Absolute vodka on the Grammy Awards show. That show, which reached an estimated 1/3 of viewing households, featured underage teen music idols Miley Cyrus and Taylor Swift, and undoubtedly drew a large youth audience.

Please support this effort and help resist the growth of broadcast liquor advertising by urging local CBS-owned and affiliated stations in your area to reject those ads. We encourage you to write, phone, or fax your local CBS stations (link to list below) and express your opposition to adding liquor advertising to the flood of beer ads that already inundate young television audiences. Ask station managers to prohibit hard-liquor ads from appearing during all local programming and during all local ad time, including local rebroadcast of any hard-liquor advertisements from network, syndicated or other regional, national, or international transmission sources.

The following resources may be of help and/or interest to you:

Letter to CBS from CSPI and other groups: http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/cbs_sign_on_letter_-_stop_network_tv_liquor_ads.pdf

List of all CBS Affiliated and Owned Stations, by State: http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/cbs_owned_and_affiliated_stations.pdf

Background Information on Television Liquor Ads: http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/backgrounder.pdf

Talking Points: http://cspinet.org/new/pdf/talking_points.pdf

Press Release: Statement of CSPI Alcohol Policies Project Director George Hacker on Absolut Vodka’s Ads on CBS   http://www.cspinet.org/new/200902093.html

Thank you for your help and, as always, please let us know if we can be of any assistance.