A business trade group representing small craft breweries wants them to knock off sexist labels, product names and ads. Zach Fowle, reporting for Draft, says that the new guidelines also want them to stop using imagery that encourages underage consumption.
The organization added two new lines to its Marketing and Advertising Code Wednesday, advising brewers that, along with avoiding advertisements that encourage things like underage consumption or drunk driving, their marketing materials should not:
contain sexually explicit, lewd, or demeaning brand names, language, text, graphics, photos, video, or other images that reasonable adult consumers would find inappropriate for consumer products offered to the public; or contain derogatory or demeaning text or images.
Offenders won’t be penalized, they’ll just be prohibited from marketing themselves with the groups’ awards and indicia, etc. As always, though, you get the feeling people aren’t quite up to speed, and might be surprised to learn that vague bans on “inappropriate” content might not serve the interests of diversity.
A staggering baby step in the right direction, though; check out the Beer and Sexism blog. [via Metafilter]