Have a round. TikTok is now open to alcohol advertisers in the US.
The update, which went into effect in early June, allows alcohol and “alcohol branded merchandise” to be advertised to anyone 25-years-old and above. The change comes as the heavily self-regulated alcohol industry—which spent roughly $1.7 billion in advertising in 2022, according to MediaRadar—has warmed to the platform.
Mixed feelings: Alcohol and social platforms have a mixed history. Since at least 2015, Meta has allowed alcohol ads so long as the ads aren’t targeted to people under the age of 21 in the United States, according to the company’s policies. However, in 2021, researchers were able to target kids between 13 and 17 years old with ads for cocktail recipes on both Instagram and Facebook, according to Consumer Reports. (Facebook later announced it would no longer allow ads for teens based on targeted interests.)
Previously, The Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS) and the Beer Institute, the two groups that, among other things, help set the advertising best practices for the alcohol industry, have cautioned their members against even posting on platforms where there could be young audiences.
- Both the Beer Institute and DISCUS require their members (and the rest of the industry) to advertise where at least 73.8% of audiences are over the age of 21.
It was unclear whether TikTok had previously met the age criteria until late 2023, when a complaint was filed against the malt-beverage brand BeatBox over content the company had posted on TikTok.
Though BeatBox agreed to remove several videos—including one in which an influencer made JELL-O shots with BeatBox—it was able to prove that TikTok’s audience met the legal drinking-age threshold.The Beer Institute published its findings in March, though it hasn’t published an official stance on whether its members can join the platform.
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DISCUS, however, updated its policy in May, effectively giving its members the clearance to post on the platform.
“They’ve recently evaluated and measured their demographic and have confirmed that it does satisfy our requirements with a good margin. So, we feel comfortable now giving them that green checkmark,” Courtney Armour, chief legal officer for DISCUS, told Marketing Brew.
Alcohol ads on TikTok come with the typical caveats you would expect for the category: They must include a “message on responsible drinking,” and they can’t show pregnant people, or excessive drinking and “reckless behavior.”
The new rules won’t, however, impact influencers. TikTok’s branded content policies still prohibit alcohol; Dylan Mulvaney was a star on TikTok, but the infamous Bud Light video was posted on Instagram Reels—seemingly marking the last time an ad for alcohol achieved virality.
TikTok says it’ll only target alcohol ads to people 25-years-old or above, but it doesn’t have the same capabilities for organic content (a no-no according to the Beer Institute’s marketing rules). Until then, DISCUS is advising alcohol brands to turn off the comments on their posts, Armour said.
This hindrance is likely why there are so few alcohol brands on the platform today, Dan Kleinman, the chief brand officer at Josh Cellars, which went viral last winter, told Marketing Brew.
In a search on August 12, Marketing Brew was unable to find alcohol brands—from Jack Daniel’s to Bud Light—with much of a presence on TikTok. For example, Modelo is a massive advertiser, but doesn’t appear to have an account on the platform.
“Until we get greater clarity from DISCUS, we see what our competitors are doing, and we get greater clarity from Tiktok that they can age-gate an organic following, we will probably hold off,” said Kleinman.