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Strangely, there has been almost no hoopla drawing attention to all the new merchandise. Distillers have been permitted to advertise their lights since April, but none has mounted the kind of campaign that usually introduces a new product. True, some companies held up advertising to wait for full national distribution; Executive Vice President Howard Feldman allows that Schenley will support its new brands with a "substantial" ad budget later in the year. But overall, says American Distilling's Haefelin, whiskey executives "are going to stick their heads into the market and look around before they announce their plans."
Crowded Shelves. What they have already seen is not too encouraging for the first couple of years. The proliferation of brand-name tipples, especially wines, has crowded the shelves of liquor stores and bars. Moreover, several light-looking whiskies, though not distilled by the process used for genuine "lights," have been introduced in recent months, and they are generally disappointing sellers.* Marketing analysts are convinced that light whiskies may well catch on—but establishing them could take several years and about $4 million per brand per year. With domestic whiskey sales increasing less than 1% annually, few companies plan to take on that costly job before consumers are even widely aware that the new whiskey is available. Besides, if the nearly 200 million gallons of light whiskey so far stowed away turns out to be something less than a heavy seller, distillers can win back much of their $2 billion investment. They can mix light whiskey into regular blended whiskies, so long as they do not call them "light." Says William J. Marshall, president of the Bourbon Institute: "The distillers can use light whiskey instead of grain alcohol to smooth out the premium blends and put on a label saying that the product is four years old."
* U.S. adults drink an average of just over 15 fifths of liquor per year.
* Brown-Forman's Frost 8/80, Publicker's White Duck, Seagram's Four Roses Premium, and Barton's QT.