It seems like TTB has eased up on various issues in recent years, and we will try to show this trend in the weeks to come. But there are still plenty of areas where TTB is quite strict. For example, good luck if you want to talk about vitamins or beneficial effects. TTB is also quite strict about the little lady above. She’s not allowed in the US. The blue label is a non-US label. By contrast, on the white label, TTB insisted that the importer obliterate the logo. TTB said: “When new labels are printed, the pregnancy logo must not appear on label and can not appear marked-out with a black marker.”

“We do prohibit the French (or any other country’s) government health warning,” Arthur H. Resnick, spokesman for the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau said in an e-mail. “We feel that consumers are likely to be confused and possibly misled by a proliferation of government warnings.”

From The Washington Post

Costco is coming on strong with its own brand (Kirkland Signature) in beer, wine and spirits. Various reports suggest Costco is one of the biggest and most powerful US retailers across the alcohol beverage spectrum, and here are signs that they have no intention of easing up on the throttle. Here are Kirkland Scotch, Vodka, Beer and Champagne. All told, Costco has more than 80 alcohol beverage products approved so far under its brand since 2003.

Here is Weed Lager. The brand name refers to Weed, California, where the beer is made. Before this 2008 label approval, the labeling said “Try legal Weed.” The current label also says “Vegan: No Animal Testing or Ingredients” (as opposed to, for example, wine with egg, milk and fish protein). Greg Beato explains the controversy in First Amendment Lite, his excellent article in the August/September issue of Reason magazine.

Every year, the TTB reviews more than 100,000 proposed labels, and because the statutes and regulations it has at its disposal are both extremely specific and extremely vague, its agents often end up behaving more like cultural critics than government bureaucrats — parsing puns, interpreting illustrations, determining the artistic value of the occasional female breast.