Google AdWords blog announced a change in policy regarding the advertisement of hard alcohol and liqueurs. A few months ago Google allowed advertising beer in Google AdWords, and now the ads have expanded to hard alcohol and liqueurs. The one stipulation that Google has is that the ads be used for branding and marketing exposure only, and they should not be used for the purpose of selling directly.

Google Vodka Ad

On the web there are many speculations for the sudden change; some presume the change is influenced by the financial crisis, and that Google is creating new opportunities in order to expand its advertising market.  Google has rejected this claim, and stated that from time to time advertising policies are modified due to advertiser demand. Barry Shwartz from Search Engine Land asked Google about this claim.

Google stated  in return:

The AdWords program policies are developed based on a combination of factors – and in this case, those included user experience, legal requirements and the fact that many hard alcohol manufacturers have been asking for the ability to promote the alcohol-related information on their sites and reach people who seek that information online.

This post was originally written in Hebrew here by Naomi Sela