BrandWeek.com

COORS SCARY SUPPORT BREWS CONTROVERSY

October 30, 2003

CHICAGO - As moviegoers in the San Francisco Bay area headed to the opening night of Miramax's Scary Movie 3 this past weekend, some encountered activists who contend that Coors' affiliation with the film promotes beer to youth.

"Coors has been styling itself as the poster child for responsible alcohol advertising, so we're really going after them," said Laurie Leiber of The Marin Institute, San Rafael, Calif., an alcohol marketing watchdog.

Marin joined Youth Leadership Institute, a youth and community advocacy group, in distributing palm cards that featured a photo the Klimaszewski sisters, better known as the Coors Twins (they briefly appear in the movie), and read in part, "What's so scary about Scary Movie 3? It promotes beer to youth." The literature asks recipients to log on to Coorstwins.com to send a petition letter to chairman Pete Coors urging him to stop using PG-13 movies as a promotion vehicle. Leiber said her group's objection was the build-up with Coors Light TV ads airing during sports programming featuring movie clips with the brewers "I love this beer" mantra.

Coors was not available for comment at press time. The FTC recently lauded Coors for setting up a third-party review to scrutinize its ads. Scary Movie 3 took in more than $49 million at the box office its first weekend.

-Mike Beirne