Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, May 21, 1990 TAG: 9005210089
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BOB DART COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Long
The National Coalition to Prevent Impaired Driving, a collection of public health and traffic safety organizations, will launch a lobbying campaign today about the alleged dangers in beer makers spending $50 million a year to sponsor stock car races, motocross events, monster truck pulls and other high-octane sports.
At the group's news conference will be David Buchanan, an assistant professor of public health at the University of Massachusetts and author of a controversial new study, "Beer and Fast Cars: How Brewers Target Blue-Collar Youth Through Motor Sports Sponsorships."
The report charges that "beer companies are actively and with conscious intent fostering the juxtaposition of drinking and driving" through their ties to motorsports. It says these breweries are "employing highly questionable marketing practices that exploit working class youth."
"In motorsports sponsorships, beer companies have chosen to target a demographic sector of the population whose status in society makes them particularly receptive to the brewers' agenda and vulnerable to its message," the report said.
A spokesman for the beer industry denounced the study as "condescending and highly elitist."
"What they're saying is that blue-collar people can't make rational decisions like the rest of the population," said Jeff Becker, vice president of alcohol issues for the Beer Institute.
Sports fans "are our consumers," Becker said. He said common sense and "cost effect marketing" compel companies "to advertise where your consumers are."
The critics' "supposition is that there's something devious about that," he said.
The study says young, working-class men who follow motorsports and idolize the drivers are also the statistical group most likely to pick beer over other beverages, to drink and drive, and to be involved in fatal car crashes.
"Young males from blue-collar backgrounds are particularly likely to die in alcohol-related crashes," the report said. "They tend to drink beer and drink to the point of intoxication more often than peers in other demographic groups."
Citing U.S. Department of Justice data, the report said the highest rates of driving under the influence of alcohol are found among men 18- to 24-years-old and among traditional blue-collar occupations or men unemployed at the time of their arrest. The study cited industry and advertising literature to show that these same demographic groups are loyal beer drinkers.
These young men are often fans of motorsports.
"Working class youth are more likely to grow up in a car culture," the report said. ". . . Cars are a part of a way of life, of working with your hands, molding materials, of being proud of the sweat and grime that comes with a hard day's work. Whether cruising downtown or racing on the outskirts, cars are where the time, energy and attention of these growing teen-agers are focused."
By sponsoring events and individual vehicles, breweries are blending "fantasy and reality" and appealing directly to these young men in a more personal way than through TV commercials, the report said.
"Through motorsports sponsorships, beer companies are doing everything in their power to embed their product in the social practices of the working class youth's car culture," the report said.
The report was sponsored by the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety and the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other Drug Problems. The findings and a lobbying campaign against brewery sponsorship of motorsports will be announced this morning at the news conference in Washington.
The report has drawn a quick reaction from the beer industry and Championship Auto Racing Teams, Inc., a motorsports firm. They will also hold a press conference today to respond to the charges.
Stephen Burrows, a spokesman for Anheuser-Busch, said it is "slanderous" to accuse breweries of marketing policies that encourage drunk driving. In fact, he said, Anheuser-Busch has an advertising campaign aimed at convincing consumers not to drive after drinking.
Becker said no research has ever shown a connection between beer commercials and alcohol abuse.
Motorsports fans are "typically beer drinkers" already, he said. Breweries sponsor races and other events to convince the fans to drink their brands of beer, not to start them drinking beer, he explained.
"There is a lot of belief that these people are very loyal to a particular brand" of beer, he said. "So it takes a powerful message to make a shift."
If breweries stopped sponsoring motorsports, Burrows said, the race fan would suffer because there probably would be fewer events and not as many broadcasts of events. Televised races carry beer commercials.
The report recommends putting an end to the promotional links between "beer and fast cars."
"A ban on motorsports sponsorships would convey a powerful symbolic message to young people: alcohol and automobiles should not be mixed," it said.
However, it concedes that such a ban "may not be politically feasible for some time."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB