Beer Maker Exposed for Marketing to Youth in PG-13 Movies

San Rafael, CA - A coalition aligned against the alcohol industry's youth-targeted marketing efforts has stopped Coors Brewing Company from using "Scary Movie 4" as a vehicle for reaching millions of teens.  Coors previously announced plans to insert its beer brands in the PG-13 film and support the product placements with a nationwide marketing campaign, just as it did with "Scary Movie 3" in October 2003. But after three groups launched the "Scary Beer Ads Campaign" against Coors' youth-targeted marketing in "Scary Movie 3," the company backed off its plans for the next film.

"Coors learned a scary lesson," said Amon Rappaport, spokesman for the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog that was part of the effort. "There's no happy ending when you promote beer in teen movies." 

The Youth Leadership Institute and California Friday Night Live, partners in the counter-marketing campaign, credited young people for taking on the alcohol industry with grassroots action in communities across California. "Too often young people are blamed for the underage drinking problem," said Maureen Sedonaen, president of Youth Leadership Institute, a national youth organization. "This time they were part of the solution by stopping the kind of reckless alcohol marketing that fuels youth drinking."

A recent study published in the American Medical Association's Archives of Pediatric and Adolescent Medicine confirms that the more alcohol advertising young people see, the more they drink. Though Coors and other alcohol producers say they do not want young people to drink, the companies profit heavily from underage drinkers, who consume nearly 20 percent of all alcohol in the U.S. according to a study by the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse at Columbia University. 

"Coors, Anheuser-Busch and other alcohol companies like to say they don't target kids with advertising," said Rappaport, "but then they promote their brands in PG-13 movies where millions of teens are watching."  Budweiser brands have appeared in numerous PG-13 movies including "Failure to Launch," "Dukes of Hazard" and "Dodgeball," according to research by Interbrand.

Both "Scary Movie 3" and "Scary Movie 4" were number one at the box office after opening, thanks to the huge youth audience for PG-13 films.  "This is a great example of why movie-makers and other organizations targeting youth shouldn't partner with the alcohol industry," said Dr. Jim Kooler of California Friday Night Live Partnership, the largest alcohol-prevention program for youth in California.

The success of the groups' "Scary Beer Ads Campaign" against Coors was reported in the current (May 1st) issue of Advertising Age, an industry trade publication that first featured a cover story on the effort in 2003.

The Marin Institute is an alcohol industry watchdog based in San Rafael, CA.