Don't Like the Law? Sue the Government

First of all, you have to realize that there is a law in Virginia that states that alcohol ads cannot be seen from the street. No doubt this law was enacted in the hopes that “out of sight” would be “out of mind” and there would be less encouragement for people, and particularly young people, to want to drink alcoholic beverages. The old ads used to show people smiling and supposedly having the time of their lives because they had a particular brand of liquor on hand.

Secondly, a story came out on February 17, 2011 explaining that a billboard advertising company was suing our state over this law, claiming that, “Virginia is one of only a handful of states that still bans all forms of alcoholic beverage advertising on billboards, and Lamar [Lamar Advertising Company] believed that such a ban was an unconstitutional restriction on speech in the context of a commercial transaction," said John S. West, Lamar’s lawyer.

Thirdly, note that the attorney general’s office of the State of Virginia quietly signed a consent decree agreeing to allow advertising alcoholic beverages, without letting the legislators know for weeks afterwards. The Attorney General saw “constitutional problems with the regulation in its current form,” according to Brian Gottstein, a spokesman for the AG’s office.

Fourthly, notice that some legislators were busy about trying to privatize the liquor sales in the state, with no knowledge whatsoever that this was taking place. The Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) officials were called to explain their actions to the legislators. Del. S. Chris Jones, a Republican from Suffolk, is actually the chairman of the General Laws Committee, which has jurisdiction over ABC. He said, “I just find it interesting that I was not aware of this.”

Lamar owns 150 outdoor advertising companies in 44 states, Puerto Rico, and in Canada, and has hundreds of billboards in Virginia. The decree will suspend the former regulations on outdoor advertising of liquor, except for some prohibitions such as enticing minors to drink, obscenity, or the use of athletes, which might make people think alcohol improves their game.