Alcohol News: October 2005
New PSAs say to parents - 'Start talking before they start drinking': HHS Secretary Leavitt unveils national PSA campaign at underage drinking prevention summit in Washington, D.C.
YahooNews.com, October 31, 2005
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) in partnership with the Ad Council today launched a national public service advertising (PSA) campaign designed to prevent underage drinking. The campaign aims to encourage parents to speak to their children about alcohol in an effort to prevent and reduce underage drinking. . . . The PSAs feature children predicting the future consequences of their own underage drinking and remind parents that children who begin drinking at an early age are more likely to develop alcohol problems. The scripts feature attractive youngsters around age ten saying "in nine years I'll be an alcoholic. I'll start in eighth grade ... "
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Alcohol and Youth Facts
College town strives to cork flow of booze
Troy Record, NY, October 24, 2005
The trembling Georgia Southern University freshman arrived an hour late for Laura Milner's English composition class this summer. Tearful and smelling of alcohol, the 18-year-old metro Atlanta native told Milner she'd blacked out after a night of downing free liquor at Ladies Night at a local dance club. Had she been raped? Sexually assaulted? She didn't know. She couldn't remember.. . .Today, Statesboro's City Council will vote on stringent new amendments to the local alcohol ordinance that include banning happy hours and drink specials at all restaurants and limiting to one per customer at a time the number of drinks that can be ordered.
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The solution: environmental prevention
Solutions to Community Alcohol Problems: A Roadmap for Environmental Prevention
State debates taxing of 'alcopops'
Alameda Times-Star, CA, October 24, 2005
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger said he wanted "public debate" when he vetoed a bill the liquor industry sought in order to ward off the possibility of dramatically higher taxes on sweet-tasting alcoholic beverages appealing to younger drinkers. AB 417 arrived on the governor's desk as an 11th-hour measure designed to put into law existing state policies that currently tax drinks such as Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice, Jack Daniels Original Hard Cola and Bacardi Silver at the same lower rate as beer. . . .But Mosher argues that California and numerous other states are violating their existing laws by failing to impose higher taxes. "My hypothesis is that the industry knew that the products under state laws should be classified as distilled spirits," said Mosher, who claims liquor companies could be liable for millions of dollars in back taxes. "That's something that needs to be investigated." See full text of article
More on the 'alcopop' debate
Yale bans drinking games at football game
CNN, October 27, 2005
Yale is banning drinking games from this year's football game against Harvard and will shut down all tailgate parties after halftime -- a move some alumni say could put a damper on one of college football's oldest and most storied rivalries. The rules to discourage binge drinking at the Yale Bowl will take effect November 5, when Yale faces Brown, but they are clearly aimed at the most raucous event of the season -- the November 19 Harvard-Yale game. . . .Harvard tightened its rules last year, requiring wristbands to prove people were old enough to drink. The school also limits the amount of alcohol that can be brought into the tailgate area. Yale followed suit this week, issuing eight new rules.
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Preventing Alcohol Problems on College Campuses
Fight against underage drinking just begun: Kearney liquor store forced to
close second business
MSNBC / KHAS, NE, October 28, 2005
The owners of a Kearney liquor store that lost its license will now lose the license for their other store. The state revoked the license of Bill's Liquor West - the store that sold alcohol to Todd Becker the night he died. Since the names on both liquor licenses are the same, the other store, Bill's liquor, will also have their license pulled. After Wednesday's ruling, the Becker family and those fighting underage drinking are now moving forward. The family is stressing this is just a small step in a larger fight. They say it is not about putting anyone out of business. For them it is about making better choices and statistics like this one: everyday in the U.S, alcohol contributes to the death of 6 minors.
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More on Alcohol Sales Licenses
Hispanic youths see, hear more alcohol ads than peers, CAMY says: alcohol industry's marketing overexposes Hispanic teens
Join Together, VA, October 26, 2005
Hispanic youth ages 12 to 20 often saw and heard more alcohol advertising per capita during 2003 and 2004 than young people in their age group in general, according to a new report released today from the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth (CAMY) at Georgetown University. The report finds that Hispanic 12- to 20-year-olds in the United States saw 20 percent more alcohol advertising per capita in English-language magazines in 2004 than did all young people in this age group.
CAMY's report, which covers both 2003 and 2004, also looked at alcohol advertising on English- and Spanish-language radio stations and on the English- and Spanish-language television programming most popular among Hispanic youth during those years. CAMY is funded by grants from The Pew Charitable Trusts and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation to Georgetown University.
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Latinos Say "Hands Off Our Holiday"
Taking closer look at liquor industry called for
Troy Record, NY, October 24, 2005
Critics may say Attorney General Eliot L. Spitzer is merely taking aim at another fat target as he campaigns for governor. But as recent Buffalo News stories revealed, powerful interests in the liquor industry ignore regulations and no one calls them on it. If the State Liquor Authority won't do its job, then New Yorkers should be glad Spitzer is. Spitzer, who is seeking the Democratic nomination for next year's gubernatorial election, has launched an investigation of the liquor industry after stories in The News documented illegalities on pricing and incentives.Worse, the stories showed that the Liquor Authority, whose job is to enforce these laws, has abdicated its responsibility. Since the election of Gov. George E. Pataki, it has levied more total fines than it did under Mario M. Cuomo, but those penalties are too small to make a difference to a wealthy industry.
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Talk Back to BIG Alcohol!
Big Alcohol's Influence
State wants to ban beer import because of elf on label
Boston Globe. MA, October 28, 2005
A constitutional battle is brewing over a holiday beer that state officials are trying to ban because they say its label might entice children to drink. The state believes it would be really awful for kids to see the label on the British import Seriously Bad Elf. It shows a mean-looking elf with a slingshot firing Christmas ornaments at Santa's sleigh as it flies overhead. State liquor regulations bar alcohol advertising with images that might appeal to children. The regulations specifically mention Santa. "There are certain symbols and images that appeal more strongly to children and this regulation includes the most obvious among them," Attorney General Richard Blumenthal said. "The state has wide discretion to regulate the sales of alcohol."
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More on Hit-and-Run Advertising
Got Beer? A-B plots health pitch
Advertising Age, October 17, 2005
Anheuser-Busch is orchestrating a marketing push that aims to boost not just its own suds but the image of the entire sagging beer category, which has suffered as more consumers pick up wine and spirits.
"It's the new wonder drug," said Amon Rappaport, a spokesman for the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog. "It's contradictory for a company like Anheuser-Busch, whose primary interest is to sell more beer, to say it's now interested in people drinking less."
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More on Anheuser-Busch products
Would you let your teen get stinking drunk at the dinner table?
Marin Health & Human Services (release), CA, October 24, 2005
Marin's alarmingly high rates of youth access to alcohol, underage drinking and teen drinking at parties have prompted the Marin County Department of Health and Human Services, Division of Alcohol, Tobacco and Drug Programs (ADTP) to develop a comprehensive, countywide campaign designed to change the course of growing trends among Marin youth by focusing on the role that adults play in the problem of underage drinking. The media campaign includes two TV spots and two print ads. For more information, contact Gary Najarian, Health Planner and Evaluator, 415-499-4230.
Find more at yli.org
Youth Perspective: It's Easy for Kids to Get Alcohol and Other Drugs
Gin billboard stirs debate in Oakland: Humongous alcohol ad upsets council member who says it's insensitive to the community's concerns
Oakland Tribune, CA, October 23, 2005
A giant liquor billboard splashed on the side of a hangar at Oakland International Airport rekindled debate this past week about whether the city should control advertising signs on Port of Oakland property. On the sign, which is nearly as long as a football field, is an advertisement for Tanqueray Gin. Although city laws allow for the advertisement of alcohol in that location, opponents of billboards say its size and message go against a general policy in the city of avoiding such ads. . . . City Council members passed a law in 1998 banning the advertisement of alcohol and tobacco on billboards within city limits.
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Oakland tells Liquor Stores "Shape Up or Shut Down!"
'Riders Helping Riders': Alcohol and motorcycling growing problem, target of new pilot program for the nation
Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation, October 20, 2005
Deaths from traffic crashes have leveled off in recent years nationwide, but motorcycle fatalities are climbing ominously, nearly doubling in the last eight years. Experts believe one cause is the same culprit in many auto crashes - alcohol.
Beginning this week, Georgia hosts a statewide pilot project to confront the problem of riding while intoxicated through a program in which motorcyclists will hear the message from a source they trust the most - other riders. This is an effort to help create a culture change in the motorcycling community, where the importance of sober riding needs to grow.
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More on alcohol in our society
Brewer to end sound-alike bar game
New York Times, NY, October 19, 2005
Anheuser-Busch said yesterday that it was ending its promotion of Bud Pong, a game created by the brewery that is similar to a popular drinking game called beer pong but supposedly played with water. It said it notified distributors the promotion was over after executives found Bud Pong was being played improperly. . . .In an article Sunday in The New York Times, Ms. Katz said Bud Pong was different from beer pong because Bud Pong rules call for water to be used, not beer.
Anheuser-Busch began its Bud Pong campaign last summer and provided tables, balls and glasses to distributors in 47 markets, several in college towns. The distributors helped organize tournaments and, Ms. Katz said in an interview this month, Anheuser-Busch was considering expanding Bud Pong and trying to trademark the name.
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More on Anheuser-Busch
Governor acts on video games, "alcopops"
Chico Enterprise Record, CA, October 12, 2005
. . .The legislation on malt beverages Schwarzenegger vetoed was Assembly Bill 417, authored by Assemblyman Greg Aghazarian, R-Stockton. An opponent of the bill, the Marin Institute, which advocates on liquor issues, claimed Aghazarian was simply doing the bidding of the liquor industry, introducing a bill contradicting Lockyer's opinion. A news release from the Marin Institute quoted Cinthya Luis, a high school senior and member of the San Diego County Youth Council, as saying, "Kids all over the state and the nation call these products 'cheerleader beer' and 'girlie beer' because they are so popular with underage girls - their sweet taste is designed to appeal to young drinkers." See full text of article
More about "alcopops"
Kids like cute creatures in beer ads, more likely to buy brand of beer, study suggests
PIRE (press release), CA, October 17, 2005
. . . researchers showed 253 children a sample of advertisements taped from prime time weeknight programs and during weekend daytime sports events. In general, the ads the children found most appealing - based on humor, music, people characters, animal characters, and story - were also rated as the most persuasive. . . .Interestingly, of the 66 different beer ads sampled, only five of them were of the type that the kids did not find appealing. These findings add to a growing body of research showing that alcohol advertising influences young people. Exposure to advertisements has been shown to create positive opinions about alcohol, stronger intentions to use alcohol, and more alcohol consumption.
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Keeping Big Alcohol in check
Teen drinking influenced by environment, not family history
Fox News, October 14, 2005
When a child has his first alcoholic drink may depend much more on his own behavior and environment than a family history of alcohol problems. A new study shows children's environment and how they react to that environment are more important determinants of the age of first drink than genetic factors.
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An example of community organizing for an alcohol-safe environment
Order your copy of Solutions to Community Alcohol Problems
Construction tops list of industries with problem drinking: mining, retail workers near top of list
About, NY, no date
The construction and mining fields have the highest percentage of problem drinkers, with nearly one in seven workers having a serious alcohol problem, according to a new ranking of industry-based problem drinking patterns released by Ensuring Solutions to Alcohol Problems at The George Washington University Medical Center. . . ."The fact is, for every industry, the numbers are too high," said Eric Goplerud, Ph.D., Director of Ensuring Solutions.
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Binge-drinking and the workplace
Our View -- Heavy drinking a deadly problem
Mankato Free Press, MN, October 11, 2005
With the arrest of nine young men in Moorhead for supplying alcohol to a man who drowned, the problem of heavy drinking by the college-aged crowd is back on the front pages. Certainly, drinking on college campuses and by minors is nothing new. But all available information points to a disturbing trend of ever heavier drinking in recent years. Police in any Minnesota city will say that the young people they arrest for drinking-related incidents often show staggering levels of intoxication. And college administrators, staff, and students will confirm that for many, drinking isn't a social activity but a means to get drunk.
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Preventing alcohol problems on college campuses
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Drink, don't drink. Drink, don't drink
New York Times, NY, October 9, 2005
In April, Kansas tightened its drunken-driving law. It was nothing surprising: since the days when Carry Nation took a hatchet to its speakeasies, the state has tended to have a low drinking rate and an even lower tolerance for the recklessly inebriated. Yet just a month later, the state relaxed its ban on the Sunday sale of liquor. In some parts, it is now as easy to buy a bottle of gin after church as a stick of butter. If Kansas seems at cross-purposes, then consider the zigs and zags of the television industry. In recent years, liquor commercials have sprouted in vast numbers on cable stations and affiliates of the major broadcast networks.
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What really works to prevent alcohol problems?
Our Solution: Environmental Prevention
Less thrilling: beer is losing its fizz among the drinking set
Washington Post, DC, October 9, 2005
When a huge consumer products company starts slipping in sales or market share, even just a little bit, it can be a sign of a much bigger problem. And that explains why beer executives are on the offensive these days. Though beer is still the most-quaffed alcoholic beverage in the country by far, it is slowly losing its grip around the marketplace edges: among new drinkers, among aging baby boomers and among other Americans whose tastes are gradually becoming more sophisticated. More and more, when people kick back with friends and enjoy a drink, they're not choosing beer. The beer industry is madly trying to figure out how to reverse this trend, which industry insiders insist is cyclical but which some analysts warn could represent a more long-term change in who drinks what and when.
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New Booze Gets Youth Buzzed
Corporate Profiles
SF considers limiting liquor sales to restrain chronic drunks
San Francisco Chronicle, CA, October 6, 2005
Sometimes street-level social work just isn't enough. In San Francisco's battle against chronic inebriation among the homeless who are taxing the emergency medical system, Mayor Gavin Newsom and other city officials are exploring new policies to limit liquor sales. Under one scenario, the city would ask liquor store owners in troubled neighborhoods, such as the Tenderloin, South of Market and the Third Street corridor, to sign "good neighbor agreements." The stores might be asked to limit their hours, stop selling certain types of high-octane alcohol, or, as Newsom suggested, not sell liquor at all on the 1st and 15th of each month, when welfare checks are usually distributed.
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Oakland tells liquor stores to shape up or shut down!
Anheuser-Busch lobbying targets underage drinking bill
San Jose Mercury News, CA, Oct. 08, 2005
Anheuser-Busch Cos. says it is committed to fighting alcohol abuse, but the St. Louis-based brewer is working against a measure in Congress that would combat underage drinking. The company objects to language in the bill that calls for a ban on alcohol ads during radio and TV broadcasts of college sporting events, a staple of the beer giant's marketing efforts.Even though the controversial language is in the bill's introduction and is not legally binding, Anheuser-Busch president August A. Busch IV has called it "misguided" and says it's "an untrue, unfair and damaging indictment of our industry."
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Alcohol Industry "Prevention" Materials": Public Service or PR ploy?
More on Anheuser-Busch Companies
Ivies tighten tailgate rules
Yale Daily News, CT, October 5, 2005
While Yale administrators continue to discuss possible changes to the University's tailgating policy at sporting events, recent changes to alcohol policies at other Ivy League schools have prompted strong reactions from students. . . Columbia's tailgate policy changes are somewhat stricter than those enacted by Harvard at the Harvard-Yale game last November, which banned kegs, U-Hauls and Winnebagos and limited the amount of alcohol each person could bring to 20 gallons of beer or one gallon of hard alcohol. But despite Harvard's changes, hospitalizations and citations for underage drinking increased dramatically at last year's game- at least 25 students were taken to area-hospitals for alcohol-related reasons, compared to only 10 in 2002 the last time the Game was held in Boston. Many Yale students said these statistics confirm their belief that trying to regulate drinking at tailgates is a lost cause and may even fuel heavier drinking.
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Learn how to address alcohol-related problems on college campuses
Preventing Alcohol Problems on College Campuses
Spitzer investigating state's liquor industry
WCAX, ,VT, October 5, 2005
N.Y. State Attorney General Eliot Spitzer has launched an investigation into the state's liquor industry.A Spitzer spokesman told The Buffalo News the office is looking at accusations that Big Alcohol pays off certain retailers with cash, trips and illegal deep discounts. A State Assembly hearing earlier this month heard testimony from critics who said the S-L-A had become too cozy with the industry it regulates.
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Keeping Big Alcohol in Check
Man gets help suing Colorado Rockies
Longmont Daily Times, CO, October 1, 2005
A local man has taken his fight with the Colorado Rockies and a beverage vendor to a national audience by joining forces with groups concerned about alcohol abuse. . . Since filing the lawsuit, Black had sought and received help from organizations like the Marin Institute, MADD Colorado, JoinTogether.org and the Center for Science in the Public Interest as a means of amplifying his message to keep heavy drinking out of sports arenas so games remain family friendly. “Jeff reached out for an institute because we are the leading alcohol industry watchdog,” said Amon Rappaport, spokesman for the Marin Institute. “It is really a case of creating safe sporting environments.”
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Action Alert: Eject Aramark From the Game
Basketball Without Beer?
Governor Schwarzenegger faces sticky decision
Sacramento Bee, CA, October 3, 2005
They taste like fruit drinks, they're sold like beer, and they're placing Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger in a sticky situation.
Flavored malt beverages - such as Mike's Hard Lemonade or Smirnoff Ice - have sparked a tax quandary for California and spawned legislation that poses a dilemma for a governor advocating healthier children and no tax increases.
Assembly Bill 417 pits Attorney General Bill Lockyer and opponents of teenage drinking against the liquor and retail industries, which say vetoing the measure could lead to a multimillion-dollar tax increase and reduce the supply of flavored malt beverages statewide.
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Editorial: Kiddie booze? Tax alcopops as hard liquor
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