Age: be over 25, and look it
The UK CAP Code (Section 18) says anyone shown drinking, or playing a significant role, in an alcohol ad must be and seem to be over 25. The US beer and spirits codes set the same floor for models and actors, who must also reasonably appear to be of legal drinking age. With a real model, 'be' is proven by identification. A generated person has no age at all, so only the 'seem' test remains, and it is judged on how the person looks to a viewer. Image models often produce smooth, ageless faces that read young, especially in soft light. Cast synthetic people who are clearly mature, and have someone outside the project judge the result.
No appeal to minors, no promised effects
Alcohol codes share a core: nothing with particular appeal to under-18s, no link between drinking and social or sexual success, no suggestion that alcohol improves confidence or physical performance, no drinking around driving or other dangerous activity, and no emphasis on high strength. Generation adds two specific risks. Illustration styles such as cartoons or toy-like 3D can carry youth appeal even when nobody intended it. And scene generation fills a bar with whatever looks convivial, which can drift into heavy consumption, or a party that implies the drink is why the evening succeeded. Review the whole frame, not only the product. Placement is regulated too: in the UK, no medium where more than a quarter of the audience is under 18.
France, the Nordics and other strict markets
Some markets go much further. In France the Loi Evin (1991) limits alcohol advertising to objective information: strength, origin, composition, production method, terms of sale and how to drink the product, plus the mandatory health message that alcohol abuse is dangerous to health. Lifestyle scenes, people enjoying themselves and brand worlds built on mood are largely off the table, and alcohol ads are banned on television and in cinemas. Norway prohibits alcohol advertising almost entirely, and Sweden and Finland restrict it heavily. A global campaign therefore needs genuinely different versions, not translations: a French execution may be a product, its terroir and its making, and nothing else.
Age-gating, moderation messages and no-alcohol variants
Brand websites put an age gate in front of alcohol content, and paid social must be targeted above the legal drinking age of each country, which is not the same everywhere. Responsibility messages differ by market too: a mandatory health warning in France, moderation lines and links to national information services elsewhere. The studio's brand hub holds these per market as required wording, so every localised version carries the right line without anyone retyping it. No- and low-alcohol variants need care of their own. Regulators look at whether an ad for a zero-alcohol drink in practice promotes the alcoholic brand it shares a name with, and when it does, the full alcohol rules apply.
Updated 25 September 2026 · General information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the current text with your legal team before relying on it.