Patrón Tequila Takes a Swing at Regulators With Bold — But Censored — Additive-Free Marketing Campaign

(Photo: Patrón)

The fight over additive-free tequila rages on in the town square.

On Wednesday, Patrón risked the ire of regulators with the unveiling of its “Censored Truth” marketing campaign across the United States. Plastered onto hotspots in New York, Louisiana, Atlanta and New Jersey, the ads lay out a simple message: Patrón contains no sweeteners, no extracts and no secrets. But everything else has been conspicuously redacted. Oversized black rectangles stamp out the hyphenated words between “100%” and “Tequila,” while audio highlights are riddled with “bleeps” that playfully hint at preemptive censorship.

These are the rare ads that keep the quiet part quiet and the loud part mysteriously tamed — an ironic sight on a 14-by-48-foot billboard.

Anyone who’s followed along with tequila news over the past couple of years will be able to fill in the blanks. Following a long-unwinding drama between officials, distillers and third-party watchdogs, the Tequila Regulatory Council forbade brands from certifying or labeling products as additive-free last fall. Months later, Patrón waded into the debate with its “100% Additive-Free Tequila” marketing campaign. Patrón eventually confirmed that they were punished with a four-day global export ban, which was only lifted after the company scrubbed offending language from its website (those hyphenated words now bleeped out between “100%” and “Tequila”).

Against all odds, Patrón is now coming back for more. In addition to train wraps, billboards and televised ads, the brand is planning to roll out a series of educational panels at this year’s Tales of the Cocktail, the largest annual mixology convention in the United States.

“Our tequila is made with just three ingredients, and we think people deserve to know exactly what goes into their drink,” Roberto Ramirez-Laverde Global, Senior Vice President at Patrón Tequila, remarked in a news release. “‘Censored Truth’ is our way of  doubling down on that promise – even if you need to read between the lines or we have to bleep out a few words because of efforts to restrict what we can share. Regardless of the words that are there or not there, our vision behind this campaign is simple: Patrón has no secret ingredients, and that’s exactly what we want everyone to know.”

The CRT allows for the inclusion of four key additives — referred to as “abocantes” — in 100% agave tequila, so long as they make up less than 1% of the total liquid in the bottle. The usual suspects are glycerin, for achieving a smoother mouthfeel, oak extract, for aromas and flavors of barrel aging, caramel coloring for tint and sugar-based syrup for sweetening. A single drop of any can radically alter the profile of a spirit.

For years, the significance of additives was largely unknown to consumers. All of that changed in the early 2020s thanks to the additive-free tequila movement, a motley crew of brands and influencers effectively spearheaded by Tequila Matchmaker and its Additive-Free Alliance. The AFA conducted third-party evaluations that tested tequila for abocantes, compiling an online additive-free database that became a badge of honor for discerning tequila distillers.

In October, the AFA was compelled to take down its list following pressure from the CRT. Tequila Matchmaker founder Grover Sanschagrin is now embroiled in a lawsuit with regulators that questions whether or not the CRT is the “sole certifier” of the tequila industry.