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Monthly Alcohol Industry News
The Hard Lemonade Mix-Up
By now, you may have heard the story. A man buys his 7-yr-old son Mike's Hard Lemonade, unaware of the alcohol content, then the cops spot the drink in the boy's hand and temporarily remove the child from his beffuddled parents.
The father in question in Christopher Ratte, a professor of classical archaeology at the University of Michigan, who, at 47, is clearly outside the target demographics for the product. "I'd never drunk it, never purchased it, never heard of it," Ratte told the Detroit Free Press.
What might sound like "news of the weird" to some, also serves to reinforce two things advocates have been saying about alcopops for years. Their names and flavors are often chosen to camouflage alcohol, their one essentially ingredient. And yes, even parents have to pay very close attention to know the difference.
In California, advocates are working to pass AB 346, a bill that would require clear labels on alcopops, visible from 5 feet away, that would read: "Attention: Contains Alcohol."
Take action: Tell Governor Schwartzenegger to support AB 346.
Assemblyman Jim Beall Proposes New CA Beer Tax
Last month, Jim Beall made a bold move. The California Assemblyman proposed what -- if it passed -- would be the first new beer tax in CA in nearly two decades. He points out that a simple $.30 per beer would generate $2 billion in state revenue -- a decent chunk of change that could be used to cover a portion of the enormous costs caused by alcohol-related illness, injury and death in California.
Higher priced beer could also mean lower incidents of underage drinking in the state, as beer is the drink of choice for college and high school students.
The beer makers and distributors want to frame the tax as infringing on Joe Six-Pack, or the average drinker's rights to a cheap buzz. But the fact is, a third of the population drinks 90 percent of the alcohol, and its that third -- the heavy drinkers -- who will be most impacted by increased taxes. Besides, if Joe Six Pack has to pay more than the current 12 cents on that sixer and has to make it last a little longer, that may not be such a bad thing.
Watch the (KTVU) TV Footage.
Miller's Fake Blog
From product-branded videos on YouTube, to interactive games big beer and alcohol companies are spending a lot of dough entertaining potential customers online. This week, the Wall Street Journal spent some time documenting how Miller Brewing Company is also using the web to manipulate the news. As the article points out, the company's "Brew" Blog, reads like it could be one guy's blog about beer. In actuality, it is a useful an example of the way Big Alcohol enjoys toying with it's audience online.
Although it mentions its Miller affiliation at the top of the page, "Brew" Blog also adopts an objective tone, calling itself a "daily stop on the Web for beer industry market analysis." But "Brew" Blog's true purpose is to razz Miller's primary competition, Anheuser-Busch. The site tracks the company's every move, and harps on nearly every superficial detail of A-B's business practices, while offering glowing analysis of Miller. Much of the site's "reporting" has also led to articles in the mainstream media. But it does not challenge A-B, or any other company, on the larger, industry-wide practices that, say, make alcohol accessible to young people or manipulate their audiences with, um, deceptive or misleading media practices. Mysterious, isn't it?
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