Brilliant Writer
Ms. Juncker
English 1A
17 May 2008
This Bud’s for You
Years ago, a male
19 year old
Student drinking is a huge problem on campuses across the country and around the globe. What comes to mind when thinking of students away from home for the first time? It’s party time!! Parents and their priggish attitudes are miles away, and for some students it is their first taste of freedom. The reality that is ignored, however, is that with this freedom comes great responsibility.
The Anheuser-Busch
Companies, Inc. began as a family run brewery and has been in operation since
1852. Through the years, Anheuser-Busch
has been an involved corporate citizen.
Dating from the 1906 earthquake through to the devastating hurricanes of
recent times, the Anheuser-Busch companies have volunteered their money,
services, and time. They have even used
their breweries to can fresh drinking water in times of disaster, as noted in
the article, “Anheuser-Busch Donates Canned Water to Aid Hurricane Wilma
Victims in
It cannot be denied that Anheuser-Busch is a benevolent, community focused company. They continue to donate millions of dollars annually to colleges and worthwhile causes. They sponsor programs to educate and promote responsible use of their product. They donate countless millions to discourage underage and irresponsible drinking, yet they continue to target the youth market. As a responsible corporate citizen, Anheuser-Busch’s practice of tacitly sponsoring or promoting activities and functions customarily associated with the student population shows a severe lack of integrity.
Be realistic. Who doesn’t associate college life with drinking and drinking games in particular? We see it all the time in movies and on television. As much as we may dislike the association, it is undeniable. For older folks, it may bring us back to our carefree youth, those salad days of high school and college. What may seem a fond memory to some is a harsh reality to others. Student’s drinking games have been around for ages. Anheuser-Busch, the maker of Budweiser beer, saw the huge potential and wanted in on that action. In his article “As Young Adults Drink to Win, Marketers Join In”, New York Times writer Jeffrey Gettleman states “according to four recent academic studies that surveyed more than 6,000 students nationwide, 50 percent to 80 percent play” drinking games. Acknowledging the age-old tradition of college drinking games, Anheuser-Busch created and promoted a game called “Bud Pong” which is a take off of a standard drinking game, Beer Pong. The object of the game is to sink your ping pong ball in the cup of your opponent. If your ball goes in the cup, your opponent has to drink the contents of the cup. As a part of the promotion, Anheuser-Bush supplied glasses, balls, and tables to distributors and sponsored tournaments in 47 markets, which included college towns (Gettleman). It is unconscionable that a company that promotes responsible drinking would sponsor an activity that encourages just the opposite (ethical appeal). While drinking games may appear to be just that - fun and games - there are some very real dangers associated with drinking games. The games can be considered forms of socializing and having fun, but they also encourage binge drinking which can have devastating consequences (emotional appeal). In the article “Alcohol Industry, Prevention Forces, NIAAA Join in Major Legislative Victory” in the Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly, a study by the Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation (PIRE) found that “[a]lcohol kills four times more people under 21 than all illegal drugs combined.” According to Ted Miller, Ph.D., director of the PIRE Public Services Research Institute, “Alcohol-related traffic crashes, violence, teen pregnancies, STDs, burns, drowning, alcohol poisoning, property damage and other risks take a human and economic toll that’s much greater than illegal drugs […] [y]et we spend so much more on youth drug abuse”(qtd. in “Alcohol”). We hear all the time about the dangers of drugs, but since alcohol is legal, it doesn’t seem to have the same sense of danger. Since it is legal, it is more readily available to students. Getting alcohol for some students is just a matter of raiding their parent’s liquor cabinet.
Apart from the
promotion of drinking games, Anheuser-Busch is also blurring the lines between
alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks which appeal to younger audiences and are a
fast-growing piece of the market. As
stated in the article “California Residents Claim Anheuser-Busch and Miller
Brewing Lure Minors with Deceptive Products and Targeted Advertising; Suit
Claims Companies Target Teens with Ads and ‘Alcopops’ That Look and Taste Like
Soft Drinks” in PR Newswire, the
annual revenue generated yearly by the underage market is $22.5 billion. While as despicable a practice as it is,
Anheuser-Busch is not above targeting this group. They are grooming their future customers and
starting before they’re even old enough to drink. Anheuser-Busch has taken traditional energy
drinks, which are already popular with students, and combined them with alcohol
in their products Spykes, TILT, and Bud Extra (Mokhiber). While the caffeine may make the user more
alert, it does not counter the affects of the alcohol, which is a dangerous
combination. That’s just what we need,
as the old saying goes, wide awake drunks.
Students may feel alert from the caffeine but are actually impaired by
the alcohol and may think they’re sober enough to drive – but they’re not. Anheuser-Busch also produces and markets Doc
Otis’ Hard Lemon Malt Beverage, which is a flavored drink in “youthful” packaging
(“
While drinking games and “gateway” drinks are major concerns that can be rationalized by company executives, there is no way to deny Anheuser-Busch’s overt promotion at college events and activities. Turn on any NCAA sports game on TV. Who is a “proud sponsor”? That’s right, it’s Anheuser-Busch. In The Chronicle of Higher Education article “AMA Program Criticizes College Association’s Collaboration With Anheuser-Busch”, Lisa Erk, spokeswoman for the AMA program aimed at stemming the tide of student drinking, states, “The bottom line is that Anheuser-Busch is capitalizing on the reputations of the universities to market the very product that we know causes the bulk of problems on college campuses today.” She further states that this type of ad campaign “supports the idea that college and alcohol consumption go hand in hand.” Athletics aside, who can forget the annual migration of college students to the warm climates for some well-deserved R and R? Oh yes, we are talking about Spring Break! This full week of drunken debauchery is rivaled only by Mardi Gras. In the papers and on the news, what do you see? You see college students with beers in their hands. You see the giant banners pushing Anheuser-Busch products. You see the bikini-clad Budweiser girls handing out logo-encrusted trinkets and articles of clothing. Everybody wants those cherished mementos of their wild and crazy time in the sun. While it can be viewed as a week to let off steam, some students forget the dangers of binge drinking. Every year we hear a sad tale of a student falling off a balcony to their death or some similar tragedy (emotional appeal). It’s mob rule and some students are not capable of resisting.
In Christine Galea’s article “A Drinking Game Promotion Blows Up”, Anheuser-Busch stipulated their game Bud Pong should be played with water and were “shocked” when they found that beer was used (non-sequitur). Although Anheuser-Busch may have stipulated the game be played with water, common sense leads you to believe that the game would be played with beer. It is almost unbelievable that Anheuser-Busch would make such an unrealistic claim. Do you know a college student who would play a drinking game with water? Do you know a brewer that would go to the trouble of promoting a drinking game played with water? The absurdity of it is almost too much to comprehend.
For a company that prides itself on their part in the fight to stop underage drinking, Anheuser-Busch opposed a measure in Congress that was designed specifically to do just that. In the article “Anheuser-Busch Lobbying Targets Underage Drinking Bill”, the Stop Underage Drinking Act would fund efforts to curb alcohol consumption on college campuses. Anheuser-Busch specifically opposed the language that called for a ban on alcohol advertisements during college sporting events. Chuck Hurley, CEO of Mothers Against Drunk Driving, states, “Given the extraordinary problems of underage drinking, to think they are the ones who should be deciding what colleges and universities around the country do is pretty astounding” (qtd. in Anheuser-Busch Lobbying).
Students are at a critical time in their lives. They are trying to find their way in the world. They are still developing both mentally and physically. With the pressures to fit in, they are easily influenced and manipulated. They have been exposed to the exaggerated portrayals of “student life” in advertising and television shows and feel they must adopt that model to get the true “college experience.” It’s unfortunate that Anheuser-Busch preys on that weakness. As concerned citizens we must let Anheuser-Busch executives know that their continued marketing focus on the student population is unethical and dangerous. Contact information can be found on the Anheuser-Busch corporate website http://contactus.anheuser-busch.com/contactus/default.asp?site=IA. What could be viewed as harmless fun for some students can be hazardous to others. You would think August Busch IV would be well aware of the dangers of student drinking himself.
Works Cited
“Alcohol
Industry, prevention forces, NIAAA join in major legislative victory.” Alcoholism & Drug Abuse Weekly
“AMA
Program Criticizes College Association’s Collarboration With
Anheuser-Busch.” The Chronicle of
Higher Education
*“Anheuser-Busch
– Community – Charitable Giving.” anheuser-busch.com.
*“Anheuser-Busch
– Company – Responsibility Matters.” anheuser-busch.com.
*”Anheuser-Busch
Donates Canned Water to Aid Hurricane Wilma Victims in
“Anheuser-Busch
lobbying targets underage drinking bill.”
“August
A. Busch, IV.” Biography Resource
Center Online. Gale. Mission College
Library.
“
*”The
front line of defense: aided by programs developed by Anheuser-Busch, retailers
are winning the battle against underage drinking.” Convenience Store
Decisions November 2006: 42(1). General OneFile. Gale. Mission
College Library.
Galea,
Christine. “A drinking game promotion blows up.(MOTIVIATION MISS).” Incentive
December 2005: 96(1). General OneFile.
Gale. Mission College Library.
Gettleman,
Jeffrey. “As Young Adults Drink to Win, Marketers Join In.” The New York Times
Mokhiber,
Russell. “A dangerous mixer.(NAMES IN THE NEWS)(alcoholic energy drinks)(Brief
article).” Multinational Monitor 28.3
(May-June 2007): 48(1). General
OneFile. Gale. Mission College Library.