Summary of Action

Between June 2017 and March 2018, TINA.org investigated the Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter accounts of Hip-hop producer and social media celebrity DJ Khaled and found that he was deceptively marketing various alcohol brands — Diageo’s Ciroc vodka, Bacardi’s D’Usse cognac, and Sovereign Brands’ Belaire sparkling wines and Bumbu rum — to his more than 23 million social media followers, many of whom are under the age of 21, without disclosing his material connection to the alcohol companies.

TINA.org catalogued more than 300 examples of such problematic social media marketing, 100+ of which came from Snapchat and 200+ of which came from Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter, collectively.

As a result of these findings, TINA.org, along with Public Citizen, Alcohol Justice, US Alcohol Policy Alliance, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, The Center for Digital Democracy, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, sent a warning letter to DJ Khaled’s attorneys (and a copy to the alcohol brands and social media platforms at issue) notifying them of TINA.org’s findings and asking that he and his sponsors immediately remove all deceptive and illegal social media alcohol posts from circulation and ensure that all future posts are clearly and conspicuously labeled as advertisements and not targeted at minors.

In response to TINA.org’s findings, DJ Khaled halted his active marketing of alcohol brands and came clean about his liquor endorsement deals in more than 150 prior posts on Facebook and Instagram by adding #AD to the captions, while deleting more than a dozen undisclosed alcohol ads on Twitter.

Prompted by TINA.org’s investigation and findings, the FTC then sent a letter to DJ Khaled in June 2018 reminding him of his legal obligations to clearly and conspicuously disclose his material connections to products that he endorses on social media, as well as his obligation to abide by the alcohol industry’s codes when endorsing alcohol brands on his social media posts.

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