Beer Companies Send Out Sobering Messages

Karen Lieberman had seen plenty of beer commercials, but not like this one.

The closing scene for the Coors Light beer commercial--billed as the “Right Beer Now”--shows an apparently drunk man trying to get into his car. “Absolutely, positively not now,” says a dead serious voice. “No way.”

“It’s the first time we saw abstinence” advocated in a beer commercial, said Lieberman, an associate at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a nonprofit group and a critic of beer marketing practices. “Coors is taking a first step by saying that at times not drinking is really the appropriate choice.”

Beer companies are not about to tell consumers to abandon drinking. But the brewers are including rather sober messages amid the slick slogans and good-looking actors that normally populate industry ads: moderation and responsibility.

Public health advocates support such ads, but they say those efforts still fall short of what is needed to point out the dangers linked to drinking. And they are not so sure that brewers are motivated as much by social responsibility as by self-interest.

Whatever the motivation, some beer makers are spending millions on advertising that encourages moderation.

Anheuser-Busch Co., the nation’s largest brewer, spends an estimated $30 million a year on moderation ads that revolve around its “Know When to Say When” campaign. Molson Breweries of Canada said it will spend $16.6 million over the next four years on commercials to promote responsible drinking. This summer, the rock group the Who appeared in Miller Brewing Co. ads advocating responsible drinking.

“There is increased attention to this kind of advertising by beer companies,” said James Sanders, president of the Beer Institute, a trade group that recently began running its own ads touting the industry’s moderation campaigns.

“We’re all increasingly aware of the need for public education,” said Sanders. “Talking about (alcohol abuse) and instructing people does work. It’s paying off.”

The effort goes beyond advertising. Miller Brewing sponsors bartender training programs to teach servers how to identify and deal with patrons who have had too much to drink. During a series of parties in Texas, Miller provided free coffee to party-goers and free soft drinks to designated drivers.

Next week, the National Collegiate Alcohol Awareness Week, sponsored by Coors Brewing Co., will encourage college groups to educate students on alcohol abuse. The best programs will receive $1,000 awards.

The campaigns and promotions, however, are not seen by the industry as countering their standard ads.

“It’s not like we feel we have to counterbalance something that’s bad,” said Miller spokesman Peter Acly. “We never show people chugging beer. We never show underage consumption.”

Despite the beer company moderation campaigns, public health advocates point out that such advertising amounts to only a tiny portion of the nearly $1 billion in annual beer advertising.

“It may not be enough,” said Clint Hawes, executive director of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependency. “Maybe it’s offset by targeting certain groups of people,” said Hawes of beer marketing campaigns aimed at blacks and Latinos.

Public health groups and groups representing blacks and Latinos have complained that beer companies target minority communities, which already suffer from higher-than-average rates of alcoholism.

“We don’t support the idea that the industry is being socially responsible by doing that,” said Juana Mora, a planner with the Los Angeles County Office of Alcohol Programs. “The few moderation messages funded by the industry are not going to counteract the stronger message” to drink.

Critics also point out that the commercials often lack useful information and may be unrealistic.

Hawes, citing the “Know When to Say When” campaign, said “the problem is once a person starts drinking, the first thing affected is judgment. It’s harder to know when to say when.”

Most of the campaigns also do not mention alcohol-related health problems. “We’d really love to see a message that talks about alcohol as a drug, that women shouldn’t drink during pregnancy, that it causes liver damage,” said Lieberman, who noted that federal law will require warning labels on alcohol beverage containers begining next month.

Lieberman and others claim that there is a surge in such ads when events trigger concern about drinking. They said an increase took place this spring when former Surgeon General C. Everett Koop criticized beer ads and investigators alleged that alcohol abuse was partly to blame in the Alaskan oil spill involving the tanker Exxon Valdez.

The industry has denied such claims and says the ads fall in line with society’s growing concern about alcohol abuse.

Despite the growing concern, brewers say there is only so much that they can do and spend. “It seems like we are maxed out now,” said Sanders at the Beer Institute. “We are trying to move on every front that we can now to increase public education.”

“We try not to talk down to people,” said Coors spokesman Pat Edson of the Coors Light campaign. “It does not say, ‘Cut down consumption.’ It’s just, ‘Here’s a situation that’s OK to drink and here’s one where it’s not.’ We strongly believe it’s an individual decision.”

College Crowd Fond of Dumpy Guy Teac Ad

Executives at Teac hoped that a new advertising campaign would spur demand for its line of stereo sound equipment. But, at least for now, the ads have triggered demand for, well, the ads.

College students from UC San Diego to Colgate University in New York have called up Teac asking for poster-sized copies of a magazine ad featuring a dumpy character and the headline: “Just give me a killer sound system and the babes will follow.”

“We didn’t really anticipate that this was going to happen,” said Scott Waltz, an account executive at Hakuhodo Advertising, which created the campaign and is in the process of putting out a poster to satisfy requests.

As for sales of Teac equipment, Waltz said the interest in the ads has to help.

Music to Soothe the Savage Teen Consumer

Here’s a wrap that you should know

Made with Pillsbury crescent rolls

Just wrap a wiener

Filled with cheese

Bake it up

It’s sure to please

Mmm ahh ohh

Pop ‘ n ‘ fresh dough. --The Pillsbury Doughboy Rap

Advertising executives are singing some new tunes to turn on young people, but may be running the risk of turning off their parents.

Pillsbury’s Doughboy has his own rap song about the joys of crescent rolls while a new Burger King radio ad features a song by rapper Tone Loc. Tradition-minded Nordstrom used reggae to promote its young men’s department. SKC Blank Audiotapes uses heavy metal background music on a commercial played during MTV’s “Headbangers Ball” program.

“It’s become quite fashionable,” said Dain Blair, executive vice president at HLC Music, a Los Angeles commercial music house that recently completed a Colt 45 beer ad featuring rap lyrics.

“Some of the creative directors at the agencies pick up on these things real quick,” Blair said. “They want to be whatever the flavor of the month is.”

Most of the rap or heavy metal music that makes its way into ads is aimed at young consumers. A survey of music consumers by Street Pulse Group, a music marketing firm, showed that 40% of 18- to 20-year-olds “like” or “strongly like” rap and 36% had the same feelings about heavy metal.

“SKC Audiotape was trying to reach 12- to 17-year-olds,” said Julie Clinard, an account supervisor at the Gary Group, a Venice-based entertainment ad agency. “And heavy metal is very popular among 12- to 17-year-olds. We needed to go with a type of music in our advertising campaign that would appeal to them.”

“It’s just another method of delivering a message,” said Blair, who notes that rap music is well suited for delivering commercial messages. “It definitely has a way of capturing the audience and delivering a message that can be understood.”

But the popularity of rap and heavy metal drops dramatically with older consumers. Only 20% of 25- to 34-year-olds “like” or “strongly like” heavy metal, for instance. Rap has even fewer fans among a more mature audience--only 13% in the same age group registered a strong liking for the music.

Those sentiments mean that advertisers often have to be very careful about not offending consumers with the wrong choice of music.

“If it’s not in sync with the music played on a radio station, you can make listeners mad and that runs counter to what you are trying to accomplish,” said Miles Turpin, chairman of the Western division of Grey Advertising.

“I’m not going to use heavy metal with a product that has already established its image,” said Clinard, who noted that her audio tape client was an unknown brand in the United States when its guitar screeching commercials made their debut a year ago. “Heavy metal is too risky for Coca-Cola,” she said.

Still, consumers and advertisers are more willing to accept a wider variety of music, said Susan Ball, who handles Pillsbury advertising as account supervisor at the ad agency Leo Burnett USA. Opera, for example, has been used to promote detergent, said Ball.

Ball said the Doughboy Rap--”It’s pretty cute and has a nice beat to it”--met with ready acceptance with conservative executives at Pillsbury’s Minneapolis headquarters.

“We have an open-minded client,” said Ball. “But heavy metal would have probably raised their eyebrows in Minneapolis.”

TV Commercials Take to the Silver Screen

If you’re the type of movie goer who doesn’t mind watching commercials before the main feature, you’ll love this. The winners of the 1989 Clio Awards--the best television and radio commercials and print ads selected during an annual international competition--will be screened at the Wilshire Ebell Theater on Thursday at 8 p.m.

The single Los Angeles screening is open to the public. For ticket prices and further information, call (213) 656-8751.