DJ Khaled’s Snapchat sobers up

“Let the celebrations begin,” he declared as he sampled a spoonful of his spiked cereal creation.
The episode was captured and shared on DJ Khaled’s Snapchat, where until recently never a week went by without a post or “snap” showing DJ Khaled “celebrating” with one of four alcohol brands: Sovereign Brands’ Belaire sparkling wine and Bumbu rum, Diageo’s Ciroc vodka and Bacardi’s D’Usse cognac. Then, on March 29, TINA.org together with six advocacy groups (Public Citizen, Alcohol Justice, US Alcohol Policy Alliance, Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood, the Center for Digital Democracy and Mothers Against Drunk Driving) warned DJ Khaled that his failure to disclose his material relationship with the brands violates FTC law and his Snapchat suddenly sobered up.
In the 10 days since receiving the warning letter, which also warned that the alcohol ads are inappropriately reaching the sizable number of minors who follow DJ Khaled on Snapchat, DJ Khaled has not actively promoted any alcohol brand on the platform. (This past Saturday night at rapper Rick Ross’ daughter’s sweet 16, a bottle of Belaire was in plain sight on DJ Khaled’s Snapchat as the tape rolled.)
DJ Khaled’s snaps regularly garner more than two million views before disappearing after 24 hours (as all snaps do), leading some to call him the “King of Snapchat.”
DJ Khaled has also come clean about his liquor endorsement deals in more than 150 posts on Facebook and Instagram by adding #AD to posts, while deleting more than a dozen undisclosed alcohol ads on Twitter, in response to TINA.org’s findings that the posts skirted FTC law. However, even with the addition of #AD, DJ Khaled’s endorsements still violate the policies of the social media platforms, not to mention self-regulatory advertising codes in the alcohol industry, both of which are designed to shield alcohol ads from minors. While DJ Khaled has added a drink responsibly message on some posts, that doesn’t solve the problem. The only solution is to delete the post, as he (eventually) did here in a previously undisclosed ad for Belaire:

For the vast majority of the 300-plus alcohol ads collected, DJ Khaled failed to disclose his material connection (i.e., his endorsement deal) with the brands. TINA.org gathered the ads from June 2017 to March 2018. The fact that DJ Khaled had disclosed #ad in some sponsored posts on Instagram before the warning letter showed that he knew he had a responsibility to reveal when he had a material connection to a good or service.
DJ Khaled has done the right thing by disclosing his material connection to these alcohol brands,” said TINA.org Executive Director Bonnie Patten. “Time will tell if he is truly committed to ensuring that his followers are not misled by deceptive ads on his social media accounts. As for the alcohol companies, their failure to make certain that DJ Khaled complied with FTC law is absolutely inexcusable.”
Based on the steps DJ Khaled has taken thus far to correct the deceptive marketing, TINA.org chose not to file a complaint with the FTC at this time.
DJ Khaled’s Appeal to the ‘Young World’
With snaps that alternate between the mundane and the absurd, AdWeek has described DJ Khaled’s Snapchat as a “bite-sized reality show.” It is a realness that, combined with DJ Khaled’s “us versus them” mentality and endless stream of catchphrases (“Another one,” “Bless up,” “Celebrate success right,” and “The only way” among his greatest hits), is especially appealing to young people. In fact, DJ Khaled says he uses Snapchat “to inspire the young world.” He rhapsodizes in a snap:

The thing is that what you see on Snapchat, that’s DJ Khaled. That’s Khaled for real. That’s Khaled. My fans are seeing me besides my records and music videos and interviews. They’re seeing a more spiritual and at the same time motivational and inspirational side of me being at home. I’m letting people in my life a little more. But at the same time I’m letting them in for a reason: to inspire the young world … They love it. I see people on Twitter and social media using these messages to do better in school and pass their finals.

That Khaled has used his special connection with young people to engage and motivate middle school and high school students as the national spokesperson for the nonprofit Get Schooled does not absolve him of the responsibility to keep alcohol ads away from minors. In fact, given Khaled’s influence on the “young world” and the well-documented dangers of underage drinking, it makes it all the more important.
One does not have to look far to find evidence that Snapchat is flooded with teens. According to the research firm Statista, nearly half of all teens in the U.S. report that the social network they like the most is Snapchat. Instagram is a distant second, with about a quarter of teens saying it’s their favorite. Rounding out the list is Facebook (9 percent) and Twitter (7 percent).

These percentages are significant in that industry self-regulation bans alcohol ads from appearing on platforms where 28.4 percent or more of the audience is under 21. As members of one of these self-regulatory groups, the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States (DISCUS), liquor giants Bacardi and Diageo, which distributes Ciroc, should be well aware of these percentages when deciding where to place their ads.
But if you ask Diageo, the company might tell you that it doesn’t actually advertise on Snapchat. After the Advertising Standards Authority in the U.K. found that Diageo did not take proper care to ensure that a Snapchat marketing campaign for Captain Morgan rum was not targeting minors, the company announced in January that it was suspending all of its advertising on the platform:

We have now stopped all advertising on Snapchat globally whilst we assess the incremental age verification safeguards that Snapchat are implementing.

But it appears that DJ Khaled was never told not to post “another one.” The next month he posted this Ciroc-branded snap that showed him tuning in to watch “The Four,” a singing competition series on which he serves as a judge: