They have had beer ads forever. The Budweiser Clydesdales … ? I think it was Jack Daniels that started advertising during the Superbowl about 10 years ago with some special Bourbon that may have been the first hard liquor ad, but I think that was more of an FTC thing than a football thing.
Liquor ads are a new thing apparently. Liquor as in hard spirits. Guess, for some reason, the NFL felt it needed the revenue, eh?
Hard liquor ads came back to tv during the Clinton era