Popular and controversial social media platform TikTok recently opened advertising on its platform to beverage-alcohol brands in the United States, due in part to its user base aging up.
At least 73.8% of TikTok’s users are of legal drinking age (LDA), according to the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), which sets guidelines for members’ usage of social media for marketing, as do other bev-alc trade groups.
The Beer Institute (BI) and Brewers Association (BA) both require members to ensure audiences for advertising are at least 73.8% LDA. The BI amended its advertising code to include the 73.8% metric in September 2023.
The 73.8% ratio represents the percentage of LDA adults that make up the country’s population, and is adjusted with each decennial census. DISCUS chief legal officer Courtney Armour said the organization has added TikTok to its list of approved social platforms after it “confirmed their demographic data.”
As it begins to allow advertising from bev-alc brands, TikTok has published its own rules governing U.S. advertising for alcoholic products, mixers and accessories, and events sponsored by alcohol brands.
In all instances, advertisers must target users 25 or older, be registered in the region where their ads are targeted (for example, U.S.-based brands can only advertise in the U.S.), work with a TikTok sales rep to confirm eligibility, and “comply with all applicable laws and regulations.” In addition, both products and mixers/accessories may be required to provide government-issued license documents.
TikTok still prohibits ads for several alcohol-adjacent products or avenues to sales:
- Alcoholic beverages with “add-ins,” such as THC or CBD;
- Hangover relief products;
- Homemade alcoholic beverages;
- And “retail or e-commerce ads, [which] are those that promote the sale or delivery service of alcoholic beverages.”
“Advertising on social media platforms is the most common and popular format to talk to consumers in today’s marketplace,” DISCUS wrote on its social media policy page. “Beverage alcohol advertising is no different in this regard, but suppliers must take precautions to minimize the risk of exposure to those under the legal purchase age.”
Now that TikTok’s audience has reached the LDA threshold, bev-alc brands need to be sure that the users their ads reach are also at least 73.8% LDA. This two-pronged requirement can make some platforms more complicated than others to work with, Nichole Shustack, partner at Nutter, McClennen and Fish, told Brewbound.
“DISCUS and TikTok are both taking it pretty seriously because for so long, their demographic was below that limit, as opposed to Facebook, for example, which clears the standard and then some,” she said. “That second prong becomes a little less important because you know the vast majority of the people with eyeballs on your advertising are going to be those who can actually consume your product.”
TikTok is the fifth most popular social network with 1.582 billion monthly active users (MAU) in April 2024, behind Facebook (3.065 billion MAU), YouTube (2.504 billion MAU), Instagram (2 billion MAU) and WhatsApp (2 billion MAU), according to Statista. But TikTok users are far more engaged than users of other social networks, with an average engagement rate of 2.65% in 2023, three times higher than that of its nearest rival Instagram (0.7%), according to Socialinsider.
Similar to Instagram, a lot of TikTok engagement is driven through influencers, users who create regular video content for their followers. In the past decade, brands have begun to develop influencer strategies, as consumers often value their opinions over what they perceive to be paid advertisements.
Working with influencers can be challenging for bev-alc brands, because digital marketing guidelines dictate that the influencers’ audiences must also meet the 73.8% LDA threshold. In addition to that, brands need to ensure the content influencers create is compliant with bev-alc industry standards.
“Social influencers and their emergence within the alcohol space is really interesting because it’s really hard to create organic content on behalf of alcohol companies for social influencers, stay within those guidelines, and ensure you’re doing it responsibly, because for a social influencer, it’s not just what you say, but what you do,” Shustack said.
“They want to get followers, they want to get clicks, but there’s so many restrictions on what you can do for advertising that is in relation to alcohol that is so unique to alcohol,” she continued. “For a lot of social influencers, that nuance is lost.”
TikTok has its own policy governing what can be depicted in ads or user-generated content regarding alcohol. Prohibited activities or references include:
- “People acting drunk, disorderly, or irresponsibly;
- The display or endorsement of excessive or immoderate drinking, including binge drinking and bottomless drinking;
- People drinking who appear to be younger than the legal drinking age;
- Claims about alcohol, the benefits of consuming alcohol, or suggestions that glorify or glamorize alcohol;
- Suggestions that alcohol can make you more popular, successful, happy, or solve problems;
- Showing alcohol being consumed while driving or at work;
- Promoting a drinking culture;
- [And] references to hangovers.”
Furthermore, TikTok is highly protective over what content it allows in a user’s For You feed (FYF), the personalized content stream TikTok’s algorithm develops for each user. Content that depicts “the consumption of excessive amounts of alcohol by adults” is ineligible for the FYF, and content that promotes alcohol products is only shown to age-appropriate users.