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e - NEWS |
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June 13, 2003 |
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1. '80s Slogans Target Underage Drinkers
2. Alcohol, Bar Committee Proposed to Discuss Law
3. Push the Courvoisier: Are Rappers Paid for
Product Placement
4. How a Thirst for Sex and Outrage Could Mean Last Orders
for Alcohol Adverts
5. Busch Offering Boutique Beer
6. Light Drinking Minimizes Diabetes Risk
7. New Malt Rule
Will Kill Market, Says Industry Executive
1. '80s Slogans Target Underage Drinkers
By
Megan Hawkins - Register Staff Writer
06/10/2003
If you've never done the moonwalk,
prepare to be carded.
The same goes if you never walked like an Egyptian,
if you don't remember who shot J.R., or if you think a turntable is a piece of
furniture, according to posters created for a national anti-underage drinking
campaign that made its way to Clive last week.
The pop culture-centered campaign uses trends, movies
and music from the 1980s to warn underage drinkers of the consequences they
face if they attempt to buy alcohol from retailers. And it's catching people's
attention.
"Well, I don't know who shot J.R., but I
definitely know the moonwalk," said Nick Speck, 23, of Des Moines as he
checked out the posters in the liquor aisle at Dahl's. "I had the red
jacket with all the zippers and everything," he said, referring to singer
Michael Jackson's "80s attire.
As summer begins, complete with graduation
celebrations and outdoor parties, officials say they are dedicated to
preventing underage drinking and the dangers that go with it. They unveiled the
colorful and amusing slogans Thursday at the Dahl's supermarket on the corner
of Hickman Road and Northwest 86th Street.
"We've launched this campaign to promote keeping
alcohol out of the hands of minors," said Scott Cottington of the Century
Council, the national nonprofit organization that created the campaign. So far,
it has been adopted in 69 cities nationwide, and Clive is the second city in
Iowa to use the campaign, following Cedar Rapids.
Dan Clute, City Council member, initiated bringing
the campaign to Clive.
"We have zero tolerance in Clive and the metro
area for underage drinking," he said. "This campaign brings humor to
the message and gets people's attention."
"This fits in well with our enforcement and
educational initiatives to reduce underage drinking and driving," said
Clive police Chief Robert Cox. "Every year there are 120 to 150
alcohol-related fatalities in Iowa, and 20 to 25 percent of them involve people
under age 21."
Mayor Les Aasheim said the city chose Dahl's as its
business partner in the campaign because the store does a good job carding
people who buy alcohol and checking their driver's licenses for birth dates.
Dahl's also is the only full-service retailer that sells liquor in Clive.
"Everyone has a responsibility to help prevent
underage drinking," said Pete Roth, a Clive police detective who attended
Thursday's news conference with Clive officials and representatives from both
the Century Council and the governor's Traffic Safety Bureau. "We're all
here together to try and curb underage drinking."
Although the Century Council has not tried to measure
the impact of its campaign, and may not realistically be able to do so,
according to Cottington, the council is confident that the materials it
distributes raise awareness if nothing else.
"Retailers aren't the biggest part of the
problem overall, but this is an area in which we have some degree of
control," he said.
The Century Council is funded by the nation's leading
distillers and also offers educational programs for high schools, bilingual
materials and other campaigns aimed at college freshmen and parents of middle
school students.
Dahl's is the only establishment
posting the slogans, but materials are available to any interested business.
More information about all of the Century Council's programs and materials is
available at www.centurycouncil.org.
2. Alcohol, Bar Committee Proposed to Discuss Law
By Vanessa Miller - Iowa City Press-Citizen
June 10, 2003
A proposed alcohol and bar
committee will make enforcement and analysis of a recently passed alcohol
ordinance a community effort.
On Monday, Nate Green, president of the University of
Iowa Student Government, proposed creating a committee to examine the alcohol
ordinance that bans those younger than age 19 from entering bars after 10 p.m.
"The Iowa City Council didn't want this to be a
council committee because it should be objective and without bias," Green
said. "So I am suggesting a panel of four members."
The members would include Green, a city councilor, a
local bar owner and a police department representative.
"The panel is a way to bring in four major
interests to form a larger committee," Green said. "The appointees
would have the ability to appoint the others needed on the committee."
Green said additional members could include UI
administration, representatives with the Stepping-Up Committee, non-bar
business owners and landlords. The committee must provide information on the
success and enforcement of the city's ordinance to the community, university
and City Council.
"It will look at many different sources to gauge
whether or not the ordinance works," Green said.
Mayor Ernie Lehman
said he liked the proposed committee and thought it could be valuable in
evaluating the ordinance.
"The independent committee could be a resource
for the council as a measurement of the effectiveness," Lehman said.
Green suggested the committee be formed before the
ordinance's Aug. 1 effective date, allowing the group some time to determine
what aspects it will assess.
"We want to get the committee formed right away
so it can give recommendations as soon as possible," Green said.
In addition to the proposed Alcohol and Bar
Committee, city staff will compile statistics on arrests for possession of
alcohol under the legal age (PAULA) from Aug. 1, 2002, to July 31 and in the
upcoming year beginning Aug. 1.
After the ordinance has been in place for a year,
councilors can review the data and compare numbers to help analyze the success
of the ordinance, Assistant City Manager Dale Helling said.
Officials with the Iowa City Police Department and
City Attorney's Office also will compile data on drunken driving arrests and
other alcohol violations to determine the effect. In an effort to gauge whether
parties in the neighborhoods increase, officials will track the number of
disorderly house complaints.
"We
are trying to identify ways to get some reasonable notion of how the law in
working," Helling said. "It will be somewhat of a subjective
evaluation."
3. Push the Courvoisier: Are Rappers Paid for
Product Placement?
By Gil
Kaufman - MTV News: Headlines
June 9,
2003
Busta Rhymes in the "Pass the
Courvoisier" video "I'll mention Cheetos because I like
them, but if I didn't they wouldn't be in our songs." — Roc-A-Fella's
Damon Dash
Photo: J Records
These days,
try putting on a CD by your favorite rapper without hearing an endless series
of plugs for Burberry, Air Force Ones, Alizé, Maybach, you name it.
But are hip-hop's ubiquitous product mentions just
about artists chronicling their high-rollin' lifestyles, or have the forces of
marketing worked their way into your favorite rapper's tunes? What's next, a
hit track written about Hummers paid for by the car's manufacturer? Well,
maybe.
"Unless someone is paying me a billion dollars or
offering equity, we don't play that," Roc-A-Fella Records co-founder Damon
Dash said of writing products into a song on request. "That's never come
up, because once you get that powerful that someone wants to pay me to do
something, I don't need it. I've heard about companies asking [artists] to do
that, but it hasn't really happened to us yet."
As it
happens, his biggest artist, Jay-Z, doesn't need any help in that department.
Jigga is already known for his product-heavy lyrics, but the Roc-A-Fella crew
doesn't want to just give it away. With the success of the Roc-A-Wear clothing
line and the recent purchase of the Armandale vodka brand, Jay has products of
his own to hype (check the lyrics to "All I Need"). Same goes for
Puffy name checking Sean John, or the Ruff Ryders giving shout-outs to Dirty
Denim, because why give others free advertising when you can help yourself out?
"We only rap about things we like. I'll mention
Cheetos because I like them, but if I didn't they wouldn't be in our
songs," Dash said.
Back in the day, artists would mention their favorite
shoes, clothes or liquor for fun and floss, but it's no secret now that
well-placed hype might land you a product endorsement deal, tour sponsorship
or, at the very least, a closet full of free gear.
"The public is much more savvy these days about
name dropping and promotion," said Lucian James, founder of the brand
strategy company LucJam, which tracks product mentions in hit pop songs on its
Americanbrandstand.com Web site. Since the site launched in January, Mercedes
has taken the lead with 53 mentions, followed by Lexus, Cristal, Bacardi,
Timberland and Nike. On the latest Billboard singles chart there are six
songs in the top 20 with one or more product references.
James pointed to the Busta Rhymes smash "Pass the
Courvoisier" as an example of a product endorsement that changed the way
deals are done. Busta's management has said that his massive hit about the
cognac brand was merely an artistic choice, but it also helped Courvoisier's
parent company, France's Allied Domecq, achieve a double-digit uptick in U.S.
sales of the top-shelf liquor. Domecq later reached a promotional deal with
Busta's management company, Violator. And Nelly must've known that his homage
to Nike's Air Force Ones might land him a shoe deal, which of course it did,
with a signature Nelly Nike shoe coming in the fall.
Things were much more innocent back in the day, when
Run-DMC unintentionally started the trend with "My Adidas," an ode to
their favorite kicks. Before hip-hop became the dominant purveyor of youth culture
and fashion, it was a street genre that big business was either unaware of or
unwilling to endorse because of its rogue image.
When Adidas execs saw thousands of fans waving their
unlaced shoes up in the air at a Run-DMC show in '86, a light bulb went off.
The band was offered a lucrative sponsorship deal in the neighborhood of $1.5
million. That same year, rapper Kurtis Blow became the first hip-hop star to
shoot a commercial when he passed the mic for Sprite. The floodgates were open,
but it would take some time for Madison Avenue to realize that hip-hop was one
of the most powerful marketing tools around.
Recently, rappers have been credited with raising the
retail fortunes of everything from soda to shoes, the latter thanks to Fabolous
and his spots for the RBK collection. Jay-Z's S. Carter sneaker was reportedly
one of the quickest selling lines in Reebok's history, marking one of the first
times that a shoe by a non-athlete has flown out of stores so quickly. The
bigger the star, the more deals, as evidenced by 50 Cent's recent signing with
Reebok for a signature shoe (see "50 Cent Can Now Throw Out His S.
Carters") and with Ecko for a clothing line.
Is it selling out or selling up? Selling out has long
been a concern in the rock world, but the impact of product placement has not
hit that genre with the same force. Bruce Springsteen ("Cadillac
Ranch") and Prince ("Little Red Corvette") are among the many
rock artists who've penned odes to cars, but few artists outside hip-hop so
generously sprinkle brand names in their songs, a trend James sees continuing.
That's because of what he called a fundamental difference between hip-hop and
the rest of the music world.
"Hip-hop is about the here and now, whereas rock
and pop songs tend to be more about eternal themes of love and hate," he
said. "A lot of current culture is about the things we want and own."
Entrepreneurial rappers such as Puffy have taken it
one step further. With his Blue Flame Marketing and Advertising company — whose
clients include Versace, Nike, Pepsi, Foot Locker and Bentley — Diddy has
further blurred the line between music and merchandise.
"Hip-hop is aspirational and more open to
identifying itself with brands," said Blue Flame President Jameel Haasan
Spencer. "It used to be cool to not have money when Run-DMC rapped about
'Calvin Klein is no friend of mind,' but now hip-hop is more
entrepreneurial."
Spencer echoed Dash's perspective that as long as an
artist seems to have a genuine affinity for a product, selling out is not an
issue. "When I saw Kid Rock in South Beach and he invited me in to have a
beer, there was a six pack of Coors Light sitting there," he said.
"He really drinks it. Our artists mention Sean John because they get Sean
John clothes every month and they know and like the brand. But when you see
Fabolous in a Reebok commercial you know he just got a check, because he wears
Nike in his videos."
Spencer
said part of his job is listening to Bad Boy releases, finding out what
products the label's acts like and trying to create relationships with those
companies. An example is an upcoming video from Loon, in which the artist is
seen holding a Kyocera cell phone. "I reached out to them and they wanted
to promote it. He holds one in the video and now we're looking at what we can
do in the future."
Though only a handful of major artists can secure
major promotional campaigns, the rush to cross-promote has touched everyone
from the Neptunes to such conscious rappers as Common, Rakim and the Roots, all
of whom have appeared in ads and promotional campaigns.
An article in October's Fortune magazine
referenced an Epic Records memo in which the company offered to place products
in lyrics to B2K songs for a fee, later quoting an executive who said the same
offer would be extended to "most of our pop acts."
Though that executive would not speak on the record
for this story, Spencer said the offer is not shocking, just good business.
"The reason why corporations are coming at us is that TiVo can get rid of
commercials and you have 900 cable channels, so you don't have to watch their
commercials anymore," he said. "That's why they're looking at this as
a viable space. Because people [still] watch videos."
4. How a Thirst for Sex and Outrage Could Mean Last
Orders for Alcohol Adverts
By Maxine Frith, Social Affairs Correspondent – Independent
News
09 June 2003
There was a time when advertising campaigns for
alcoholic drinks were based on the thirst-slaking qualities or even the
nutritional value of the beverages they championed.
Guinness was "good for you", Heineken
"refreshed" the parts that other beers couldn't reach and Le Piat
D'or gave the consumer French sophistication. The veracity of such claims might
have been open to question, but the boasts now seem charmingly coy.
That was then. Now, like a group of loudmouth lads at
the bar, 55 minutes into happy hour, alcopop television adverts have burst on
to the market, with an outpouring of sexual braggadocio. But the Government
believes the drinks industry has gone too far. The ads, it says, encourage
antisocial behaviour and unsafe sex.
In a clampdown, ministers are considering new laws to
ban alcohol commercials on television before the 9pm watershed and to end
self-regulation of the advertising industry.
Take, for example, one new advertisement, which
features a young woman having an orgasm in a coffee shop at the mere thought of
her Bacardi Breezer-swigging boyfriend. Another ad from the same campaign is
set in a church but themed: "She Bangs!"
Leading figures in the advertising industry are also
concerned. The former head of a well-known agency said that drinks adverts were
"stepping over the boundaries of taste and decency". Hugh Burkitt, a
former member of the Advertising Standards Authority and until last year the
chairman of the advertising agency BDB, accused advertisers of breaking
self-regulatory codes and said the industry watchdogs were being too lenient.
He warned that abuse of the rules by advertisers and
manufacturers could lead to much tighter regulation of the industry. Adverts
for drinks from alcopops to the more traditional gin and bitter are all overstepping
the marks of taste and decency, according to campaigners. Television,
billboard, newspaper and now internet adverts are all under the influence of
the brash new culture.
One of the most memorable adverts recently is Greene
King's raunchy reinvention of Abbot Ale largely credited with serving up a
healthy 20 per cent growth in sales for the pub chain operator.
The Government is expected to publish an interim
report on alcohol in the next two months, ahead of its long-awaited Alcohol
Strategy, designed to reduce drink-related health problems and antisocial
behaviour. During the consultation process, campaigners have pointed to
mainland Europe and called for much tighter regulation of advertising. Britain
currently has some of the most lenient regulations in Europe governing
advertising of alcohol.
There is a ban on television advertising of alcohol
in France, while Germany prohibits television commercials for spirits. Ireland
the only country with higher rates of teenage drinking than Britain has now
proposed a ban on alcohol advertising before 10pm, a move that would
essentially end the drinks industry's close marketing relationship with sport.
In this country, television commercials are regulated
by the Independent Television Commission (ITC). Alcohol is not allowed to be
advertised during programmes aimed at children, and is not allowed to suggest
that drinking will increase sexual prowess.
But Mr Burkitt whose agency created the memorable
"The French adore le Piat D'Or" wine adverts in the Eighties, said
the rules were being broken and watchdogs are turning a blind eye.
Now chief executive of the Marketing Society, Mr
Burkitt told The Independent: "If you go back five years there were
very few complaints about alcohol. We are seeing more and more now. The ads are
stepping over the boundaries of taste and decency."
Mr Burkitt said an advert for Carling, which depicted
a woman trailing lager over furniture as a man licked it off, was
"extremely tasteless".
He also criticised another television commercial for
Bacardi, which showed the footballer-turned-actor Vinnie Jones having his
clothes torn off by a group of women and recalled his role as a gun-toting
debt-collector in the film Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. "I
don't think it was right to use Vinnie Jones in the Bacardi ads because there
was too much of a link with a violent movie and a hardman image."
"The industry is now holding its breath to see
what the Government's strategy is going to say. I think some in the industry
are beginning to recognise that if they don't get their house in order, there
will be a clampdown. Some of the agencies are now adopting a much more
responsible and ethical approach to advertising."
But the Government's patience may be pushed still
further in the coming months, with the launch of a new vodka-based alcopop that
claims to boost sexual performance.
Roxxoff known as the first of the
"viagra-pops" will contain herbs used in Chinese medicine which,
its manufactures claim, make its drinkers "more frisky". Advertising
campaigns will feature the strapline: "We dare you ..."
The manufacturer, Yours Alternatively, which is based
in Surrey, says its product will be "the first responsible alcopop"
because it will only be sold in pubs and bars, not in shops, where most
under-age drink-ers buy alcohol.
But charities say advertisers are using blatant
sexual imagery to promote alcohol to the youngest groups of drinkers.
Eric Appleby, chief executive of Alcohol Concern,
said: "There has been a general trend in recent years for advertisers to
link sex with alcohol in a much more blatant way than before.
"The advertisers are using sexual imagery but
pushing the letter of the law by saying that their ads are not suggesting that
the products will increase sexual prowess. A lot of them are getting round it
by not showing people actually drinking the product, so they can have very
sexual images but we can't complain about the ads.
"The fact of the matter is that we have the
highest teenage pregnancy rate in Europe and the highest rates of teenage
drinking. Huge numbers of teenage sex happens when they are drunk. These ads
are just adding to that problem."
Sponsorship of programmes such as Friends
(sponsored by Jacobs Creek) which had a huge teenage audience,was also a
problem, he said.
"The advertisers and manufacturers seem to have
become a lot more brazen while the advertising industry seems to have become
more lenient in the last couple of years." At the moment, adverts were
getting through that should never have been screened.
"We have always been sceptical about
self-regulation, but we would like to see it work. What we need are much
tighter regulations over how, when and where people are allowed to advertise
alcohol."
But Jean Coussins, chief executive of the Portman
Group, an organisation funded by the drinks industry that promotes responsible
drinking, rejected the idea of scrapping self-regulation.
She said: "It is not a question of the rules
needing to be tightened up the rules are fine. It is a question of whether
the regulators are applying the code of conduct rigorously enough. "It is
important that producers do rein back a bit. If the industry wants to avoid
government interference with its commercial freedom, it needs to go further
than just obeying the letter of the law."
The Portman Group had a voluntary code of conduct
that regulated how drinks were promoted, she said. Last week, an alcopop called
FCUK, from the French Connection group, was withdrawn after the Portman Group ruled
it unacceptable.
The Portman Group is still considering the case of
Roxxoff.
Alcohol ads that pushed the limits
ABBOT ALE: Greene King's racy adverts for
Abbot Ale were credited with helping the brewer and pub operator to a 20 per
cent rise in sales last year. Advertising watchdogs received a string of
complaints about an advert depicting a woman at the height of ecstasy with the
slogan: "Some things get better given longer." One national newspaper
refused to carry the image, part of a £500,000 campaign. A second advert showed
a blindfolded woman groaning with pleasure on a bed.
SMIRNOFF ICE: The ASA upheld a complaint last
year after it depicted two men drinking Smirnoff Ice with two women on their
knees. In 2001, another ad was criticised when it showed a man who went with
his wife to the airport and pretended to have lost his passport. She boarded
the plane while he had extra-marital cavorting.
BACARDI: TV advertisement that uses Vinnie
Jones and shows him surrounded by women has been criticised for suggesting that
the fact someone drinks Bacardi leads to enhanced sexual attraction. A pose
struck by Jones with two bottles of the drink, making him look like an assassin
holding two guns, has also been criticised.
CARLING: Controversial TV ad that features
a man trailing after his partner and licking beer off the furniture and walls -
eventually leading to a scene with her in lingerie. The Independent Television
Commission said in September it should not have been shown during daytime World
Cup matches. It received 69 complaints.
GORDON'S GIN: Gordon's Gin's employed a couple
to play strip chess in the window of Selfridges in Oxford Street to publicise
the launch of their campaign in April 2003. The distiller sailed close to the
wind in 2000, when posters of a naked woman advertising gin were banned in
Ireland because they were too "provocative".
5. Busch Offering Boutique Beer
World's largest brewer aims new product directly at import market
By
James F. Peltz - Los Angeles Times
06/08/2003
Is this beer for you? Anheuser-Busch sure hopes so.
The brewing kingpin has rolled out an upscale beer in select cities to compete
against the imported brews whose sales are barreling along in an otherwise
stagnant market.
The world's largest brewer figures its Anheuser World
Select can tap Americans' thirst for foreign-tasting suds. But it won't be an
easy sell, despite Anheuser-Busch's huge marketing muscle.
Convincing fans of Corona, Heineken and other imports
to buy a domestic beer of any taste "is a tall order," said Harry
Schuhmacher, publisher of Beer Business Daily, a trade publication.
The problem for Anheuser-Busch is that a big part of
the imports' appeal is that they're, well, imported.
"Beer drinking is all about image,"
Schuhmacher said. "High-end imports have done extremely well.
Anheuser-Busch has watched this growth and they've largely not
participated."
Marlene Coulis, Anheuser-Busch's director of new
products, said World Select would change that. She said the new beer, a year in
development, meets import fans' desire for "a fuller flavor, more hops and
a little stronger of a finish."
But Anheuser-Busch appears to be hedging its bets. The
new beer will be sold only in 10 markets around the world.
World Select will be priced in line with imports,
which typically sell in Southern California supermarkets for $7 to $10 for a
six-pack, compared with $4 to $7 for domestic brands.
For all the appeal Anheuser-Busch says its new
offering will have, World Select isn't expected to alter the company's fortunes
radically.
"Even if it's wildly successful in those 10
markets, it's not going to be a big driver for them," said Eric Shepard,
executive editor of Beer Marketer's Insights, another industry journal.
"But," he said, "it makes sense [to battle the imports] and
they're going to give it a shot."
Based in St. Louis, Anheuser-Busch has about half the
U.S. beer market, and last year shipped 128 million barrels globally, posting
sales of $15.7 billion. It sells such mainstream brands as Budweiser, Bud Light
and Michelob. The company has 12 domestic breweries; World Select will be
bottled in Baldwinsville, N.Y.
Because it holds equity stakes in several foreign
brewers, including Mexico's Grupo Modelo, maker of the best-selling Corona
beers, Anheuser-Busch has profited from the import boom. Those equity holdings
last year generated 18 percent of Anheuser-Busch's earnings of $1.93 billion.
They have helped Anheuser-Busch thrive despite the
flat beer market. Its stock has far outpaced the broader market the last two
years. The stock closed Friday at $52.63 per share on the New York Stock
Exchange.
Total U.S. beer sales last year, at 204.9 million
barrels, marked an increase of 11.5 million barrels from 1997, representing average
annual growth of only 1 percent to 2 percent. And 9 million barrels of that
gain came from imports, according to Beer Marketer's Insights.
Also helping Anheuser-Busch are its huge economies of
scale and widespread distribution that make it more efficient; a big
advertising budget; and 2 percent price hikes that Anheuser-Busch has pushed
through in each of the last four years.
To develop World Select, the company called on 10 of
its brewmasters from around the globe. One of them, Greg Suellentrop, said the
result is a dark golden, Pilsner-style beer with an aroma that highlights its
heavy dose of hops and malt.
"Today's beer drinker is looking for a little
more sophisticated beer," Suellentrop said. "They want beers a little
'hoppier,' a little 'maltier.' It's a challenge to meet their constantly
changing tastes."
Imports might meet that taste test, but their
popularity has grown in large part because their producers excel at marketing
the brands, especially with television advertising, said Shepard.
"Beer is still a badge," he said.
"There's still brand equity in beer brands, and imports have always had a
cachet in the U.S."
That's not lost on Anheuser-Busch. The company is
quick to point out that World Select comes in green bottles with embossed
labeling. Heineken, a top import made by the Dutch brewer Heineken, also comes
in green bottles.
Dan Tearno, Heineken spokesman, said, "They're
clearly trying to catch on to something that we've made a great success."
6. Light Drinking Minimizes Diabetes Risk
SABCNews.com
June 10, 2003
Young
women who are light to moderate drinkers - one to two beers a day - have a
lower risk of developing adult onset diabetes than those who don't drink at
all, according to a study published yesterday.
Researchers at the Royal Free and University College Medical Schools in London
and Harvard University based data from 109 690 women aged 25 to 42 - who were
enrolled in a study in 1989 and monitored for 10 years. Among the group there were
935 new cases of adult onset diabetes recorded during the period.
The study found that, compared to nondrinkers, women who consumed 1 to 4,9
grams of alcohol per day (equivalent to less than one beer) had a 20% reduction
in risk for developing adult onset diabetes. For women who drank 5 to 14,9
grams of alcohol per day - about one beer - there was a 33% risk reduction
which rose to 58% for those who drank from 15 to 29,9 grams of alcohol per day,
or about one to two beers.
However those who drank 30 or more grams of alcohol per day, or about two to
three beers, only had a 22% risk reduction. The researchers said people should
not interpret the study results as grounds to drink more and noted that alcohol
consumption poses other dangers. The study, published in the Archives of
Internal Medicine, said the reason for the apparent protective effect was not
known.
It said previous studies mostly involving men found that heavy drinking is a
risk factor for adult onset or Type 2 diabetes, while other studies have
reported that light to moderate drinking may be protective against the disease.
The study said the inverse association was strongest in women who drank beer or
wine. – Reuters
7. New Malt Rule Will Kill Market, Says Industry
Executive
By David Goetz - The Courier-Journal
June 10, 2003
A proposal to include more malt in flavored malt drinks will
make the popular beverages taste too "skunky" to survive, a
flavorings company executive said.
Requiring that 90 percent or more of the alcohol in malts
such as Smirnoff Ice or Bacardi O actually come from malt brewing "will
surely kill the flavored malt market," said Robert B. Back, vice president
of Flavormatic Industries Inc.
The federal Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau
proposed the new standard after state alcohol regulators complained that most
of the alcohol in the drinks comes from distilled spirits' flavorings.
The regulators said they also would consider a less-stringent
requirement that at least 51 percent of the alcohol come from malt brewing.
The bureau last week extended until October the deadline for
comments on the rule change after lawyers for the E&J Gallo Winery wrote
that the company will need more time to test the viability of the new standard
by letting its product age.
Gallo produces the Bartles & James line of coolers.
Flavormatic Industries supplies flavorings for some malts,
Back said, and he's familiar with the process. Adding flavorings to a true malt
base doesn't work, he said, because even the best-brewed malts have a
distinctive taste that gets stronger in a matter of weeks, making their shelf
life too short.
Most flavored-malt manufacturers use a blend of nearly pure
ethyl alcohol and citric acid in their drinks to stabilize their flavor, Back
said. There's very little malt base in them.
Brown-Forman Corp., which sells Jack Daniel's Original Hard
Cola and Jack Daniel's Country Cocktails in the malt segment, is still
experimenting with both the 90-percent and 51-percent standards.
"We have two concerns with the 90-10 formula, taste
profile and shelf life," said Brown-Forman spokesman Phil Lynch. "We
much prefer the 51-49 (standard) and think it's going to be much easier to set up
the right taste profile with that formula."
Brown-Forman is still working on its comments for the
government, Lynch said.
Flavored malts have been around for a long time, but state
alcohol regulators took notice a few years ago when the drinks started showing
up in grocery and convenience stores under the names of popular vodka, rum and
tequila brands. At least one of the new malts said on its label that it
contained vodka. Temperance forces and opponents of underage drinking were
incensed that liquor brands were appearing in beer coolers.
Because they are regulated like beer, the malts have wider
distribution and pay far less in taxes than wine and liquor. And they can
advertise on national broadcast TV networks, which still decline to sell time
for liquor ads. That gets exposure for the parent liquor brands.
Under pressure from the states, federal regulators took a
second look at the malts last year. First they banned the use of words like
vodka or rum on the labels. Then in March, the Tax and Trade Bureau proposed
the strict new rule.
So far three states - Mississippi, Virginia and West
Virginia - have weighed in with comments in favor of the rule. "Any
standard allowing a higher percentage of alcohol from a source other than the
brewing process would create a potential conflict with current Virginia
law," wrote Vernon M. Danielsen, chairman of the state's Department of
Alcoholic Beverage Control.
Perhaps surprisingly, brewing giants Anheuser-Busch and
Miller also support the stricter standard, through the industry's Beer
Institute trade group. They were forced to jump into the malt segment with
licensed products from Bacardi, Brown-Forman and other distillers after
Guinness product Smirnoff Ice took a small but significant share of the beer
market.
"The big breweries are the ones fighting to kill this
segment," Back said.
Opponents of the rule change cast the issue in terms of
big-government regulation and taxation. Most of the 115 comments to date are from
convenience-store operators faced with the loss of a popular item. Anti-tax
activist Grover Norquist set the tone.
The new standard "will substantially change the taste
of the (flavored malts), giving them more of a malt flavor and possibly killing
off most of the products," wrote Norquist, president of Americans for Tax
Reform. "The loss of (flavored malts) removes another choice from the
beverage marketplace and further reduces competition."
