Plans Made for 1999 Great American Beer Festival
College Tradition Ends; Sobering for Community
Oldest Known Neos Celebrate Birthday
Dever Presented with Mighty Oak Award
Family Coalition Formed to Fight for Tax Rights
Disney Sued over Alcohol in Children’s Movies
Anheuser–Busch has been coordinating efforts with 7-Eleven Inc. to put the brakes on teenage drinking and drunk driving during prom season, graduations and the summer season.
The two companies have been working together for three years on a campaign to deter young people from attempting to purchase alcohol. As part of an ongoing effort which includes many beer wholesalers, A-B is replenishing 7-Eleven stores with supplies of “We I.D.” cards, as well as driver’s license books, which have color photos of valid driver’s licenses from all 50 states and Canada. The stores are also supplied with special hologram cooler door stickers that say “We’re 7-Eleven” from one angle and “Are You 21?” from another.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the number of people killed in teenage drinking and driving crashes has declined over 60 percent since 1982. Efforts by wholesalers, brewers and retailers have a large impact on this reduction. “Those numbers are significant, and Anheuser-Busch and its wholesalers are proud of the role they’ve played…but there is still more to be done,” says A-B Senior Group Director John Kaestner. “Underage drinking is on the decline, but it takes programs like this joint venture to continue that trend.”
Since 1989, more than 450,000 “We I.D.” booklets have been distributed to retailers through A-B wholesalers.
Plans Made for 1999 Great American Beer Festival
The 18th Annual Great American Beer Festival, the country’s
oldest and largest beer festival, will take place October 7-9 1999, at
downtown Denver’s Currigan Exhibition Hall, showcasing 400 domestic
breweries from all over the United States.
Over 1,700 different beers will be exhibited with public tasting sessions on Thursday, Friday and Saturday of the festival, from 5:30 until 10:00 pm each evening. An awards ceremony and special members-only tasting will be reserved for Saturday afternoon from 12:30 until 4:30 p.m. Major innovations for this year’s Beer Festival are the addition of two new categories, chocolate/cocoa flavored beers and Irish-Style Red Ale beer, for a grand total of 54 judged categories. There will also be awards presented to the “Brewery of the Year” and “Brewer of the Year” based on the brewer’s annual production of beer in barrels.
Brewing Matters President and Festival Director, Sharon Mowry, is “amazed at how it is all coming together,” and has received an overwhelming response from the brewing community. “This year’s festival promises to be the best yet, thanks to a creative and enthusiastic staff and the support of our corporate sponsors,” said Mowry.
The Great American Beer Festival, which originated in 1982 with the help of just 40 breweries, is produced by Brewing Matters, a division of the Association of Brewers. For more information on attending the Great American Beer Festival, call the Festival Information Line at (303) 447-0126, or contact the Festival Website at www.GABF.org.
College Tradition Ends; Sobering for Community
A football rivalry between two Tennessee and Kentucky colleges is now over. Officials at both schools told the Associated Press that in light of a fatal alcohol-related truck crash that killed two Kentucky football players last year, a time-honored tradition would have to end.
For many years, the winner of the rivaled game between the two schools was awarded a blue, white and orange painted keg, symbolizing the win and anticipation of a victory celebration. After a fatal auto crash involving three football players, the annual post-game display of the trophy at the Kentucky-Tennessee game was cancelled “out of respect for the victims.” According to BAC tests, the driver of the automobile and sole survivor of the crash was recorded at one and a half times above the legal limit in Kentucky.
Oldest Known Neos Celebrate Birthday
The country’s oldest anti-alcohol coalition is celebrating its 125th birthday this year. The Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU), founded in 1874 by women who disapproved of their husbands’ consumption of alcohol, have stuck by their original philosophy of “Agitate – Educate – Legislate.”
When the Women’s Temperance Union started in 1874, women were barred from entering taverns. In defiance of the law, women would form groups and enter the taverns, lay down their Bibles and start to pray. This practice continued through 1919, when prohibition was successfully banned by the 21st Amendment, which was repealed in 1933.
In the wake of the recent publicity surrounding the WCTU birthday celebration, spokesperson and current WCTU president, Sarah Ward, told Reuters Press Association “We think our bodies are the temple of God and therefore we should keep impure things out of them.”
This philosophy seems evident, as WCTU literature boasts of the dangers associated with alcohol, how alcohol is a “poison,” and a “narcotic, depressive, addictive drug.”
“There is only one way to be sure you will not become an alcoholic,” warns the Temperance Union. “Never take the first drink!”
Coming from the oldest and dearest group of Neo’s we know, what can you say?
Happy Birthday?
Dever Presented with Mighty Oak Award
Each year on Arbor Day, the board of TREES Inc.,
presents the Mighty Oak Award to someone in the Terre Haute community who
exemplifies the practices and missions of the organization. This year,
Luke Dever was recognized for exhibiting these fine qualities.
Luke Dever, CEO of Dever Distributing, Terre Haute, Indiana, was part of the original group of members who started “TREES” back in 1938. “The area was in a little bit of bad shape there for a while. I thought we should start buying and planting trees to make the area and the roads more beautiful,” said Dever.
TREES Inc., has come a long way since it originally started. The 1999 objectives list ten priorities, including planting over 100,000 daffodil bulbs to make the community more beautiful, sponsoring the annual Community Arbor Day Celebration with the help of local elementary school students, making grants to Vigo County elementary schools to sponsor innovative environmental education programs and developing a special coalition to implement the Third Street Beautification Project; improving the landscape at the interchanges of the Interstate.
Besides these specific projects, TREES continues to participate in its original practice of planting as many trees as possible. This year, the Adopt-A-Street project will grant trees to those families wanting to adopt and care for a large street tree to enhance local appearance, environmental and economic improvement. TREES also plans to replace hardwood trees that were lost in the summer storms of 1998, and to plant trees in city and county public parks.
Luke Dever was presented the Mighty Oak Award “as a result of the leadership, financial support, creativity, initiative, energy, enthusiasm and concern for the environment of today,” said award presenter, and Terre Haute Mayor, Jim Jenkins.
“Because of Luke, Terre Haute has Dogwood Point in the park, hollies trucked in from the east coast via the Budweiser Pony Express for the Holly Arboretum, three water trucks and one tree spade,” said Jenkins. “Luke is responsible for 500 National Tree Trust Trees growing in parks and other public areas in the city, and his trucks deliver 200 plus pounds of mulch each year for the Adopt-A-Tree program.”
Humbled by such an honor, Mr. Dever is proud of the long-term accomplishments of TREES and thinks it’s a wonderful way to get wholesaler involvement on the map.
“People who have become involved in TREES have excited the city. It is amazing how much talent there is, all you have to do is ask!,” says Dever.
NBWA salutes Luke Dever, CEO of Dever Distributing, as well as Tom Dever, General Manager of Dever Distributing, for his hard work and involvement with the Terre Haute, Indiana, community. Their dedication is a fine example of another beer wholesaler making a difference in local communities across the country.
Please let the NBWA Public Affairs Department know of your involvement with your community and its public outreach and benefit programs by calling (800) 300-6417.
Family Coalition Formed to Fight for Tax Rights
In June of this year, a group of business affiliates joined together to form a coalition called The Americans Against Unfair Family Taxation (AAUFT).
The new coalition, representing family businesses across America, has publicly called for the immediate repeal of the federal estate tax, more commonly known as “the death tax.” The AAUFT has plans to educate citizens, opinion makers and public officials of the penalties associated with the death tax in an effort to terminate this method of unfair double taxation.
“It is the most un-American tax, and it is so unfriendly to business,” said Food Distributors International (FDI) president John R. Block at a recent news conference. Block has a family-owned farm in Illinois. Block has publicly expressed the devastation he experienced as he watched many family-owned businesses suffer the wrath of the death tax during his five-year tenure as U.S. Secretary of Agriculture for Ronald Reagan.
Ultimately, many families, because of the overwhelming financial obligation that the death tax imposes, are forced to liquidate their businesses.
Representatives Jennifer Dunn (WA-8) and John Tanner (TN-8) had proposed legislation to phase out the death tax, which received bi-partisan support. Now, having passed the House as part of a Congressional tax package, the legislation is expected to receive a veto from the President. Negotiations are underway to deter a Presidential Veto. Recent polling continues to illustrate the public’s overwhelming support to eliminate the death tax.
NBWA was extremely pleased to receive the support of legislators in repealing the death tax. As a member of the AAUFT, NBWA continues to aggressively work with this coalition to educate the public of the unfair, pending death tax.
Americans Against Unfair Family Taxation Coalition Members
- Food Distributors International
- Food Marketing Institute
- Grocery Manufacturers of America
- International Franchise Association
- National Association of Broadcasters
- National Association of Convenience Stores
- National Beer Wholesalers Association
- Printing Industries of America
Disney Sued over Alcohol in Children’s Movies
A California resident has filed suit against The Walt Disney Company for showing characters in animated features smoking tobacco and drinking alcohol.
Yoon Soo Ha, of Los Angeles, California, has accused Disney of showing tobacco in 17 of its 33 animated films released between 1937 and 1997, and showing alcohol consumption in 19 of the 33 films. The animated features cited include “101 Dalmatians,” “James and the Giant Peach,” “Pinocchio,” and the “Hunchback of Notre Dame.”
According to Ha’s attorneys, the lawsuit is the first of several court actions which are anticipated against the Walt Disney Corporation. Ha’s legal representation has expressed its intention to file lawsuits against Hollywood studios and producers who feature alcohol and tobacco in television programming, movies and cartoon productions aimed at children.
Ha, the father of a ten year old boy, told the San Jose Mercury News that “the gravity of the harm to young children caused by being exposed to Disney’s animated children’s films, without being provided with clear verbal messages of any negative long-term health effects associated with use of either tobacco or alcohol, is substantial.”
The lawsuit calls for a court order requiring Disney to warn children and their parents about the dangers of tobacco and alcohol products.
Campaign to Halt Over-Consumption Hits College Campuses
An advertisement, supported by 113 colleges and universities, is scheduled to run in 17 major newspapers as collegians return to campuses this fall. The ad is aimed at parents and legislators in an effort to publicize over-consumption of alcohol, known to most as “binge drinking.”
The National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, which created the campaign, plans to continue the campaign in an effort to take the problem “off campus,” according to the New York Times.
“We hope that people realize that it’s not a problem created on or by universities,” said Graham Spanier, President of Penn State University. “About one-third of college students started drinking in high school,” says Spanier, the current chairman of the association’s Kellogg Commission on the Future of State and Land-Grant Universities. (This claim has led many to believe that colleges and universities should look to educate students earlier rather than waiting until they arrive at college.) “Today there are some who don’t want to talk about it because they feel it would bring bad P.R to the campus. If they openly acknowledge there is a problem, they are afraid it might disturb parents, that applications may go down,” says Spanier.
The new ad looks like an advertisement for beer, but instead, bears the title of a mock-brew called Binge Beer. The print-ad is titled “Hitting College Campuses this Fall,” and includes phrases such as, “Who says falling off of a balcony is such a bad thing? And what’s an occasional riot? Or even a little assault between friends?”
Many colleges and universities tackle the issue of over-consumption in creative ways, as some believe that promoting the low-level of college consumption discourages feelings of peer pressure, assuring students that “everyone isn’t doing it.” For example, administrators at the University of Arizona have spread the word that fewer students are over-consuming alcohol, having four or fewer drinks when socializing. U of A hopes this will create less need to “keep up” consumption.
The latest data, compiled by the Highway and Safety Research Center, University of North Carolina, found that 70 percent of students surveyed in August of 1999 did not have any alcohol in their blood after an evening out. Though encouraging, the data suggests that under-age consumption by college students remains a problem which continually needs the support of community leaders and local wholesalers.
For information on how to get involved with your local college or university, contact your local Educational Institute Administrative office, or contact NBWA public affairs for tips on how to get involved in your area.
The United States has the highest minimum drinking age in the western world.
Is this a major factor in the rash of binge drinking episodes across the nation’s college campuses?
We remember a conversation with college-age exchange students. They are allowed to drink legally in their countries and they couldn’t believe the binge drinking by American students who are under the legal drinking age of 21.
Since the federal government in 1984 forced the states to buckle under and adopt a 21-year-old drinking age minimum (states faced the loss of highway funds if they refused), binge drinking has become commonplace on campuses. Is there any wonder? By denying 18, 19 and 20-year-olds the opportunity to drink legally – and responsibly – we force them to flaunt the unreasonable 21 year-old drinking minimum.
Wouldn’t it be better to legally allow our 18-20 age group to drink if they choose to do so and then inflict severe penalties such as the loss of driver’s licenses for those who abuse this privilege?
It is all about responsibility, we believe. Being responsible for our own actions. Isn’t it time we began stressing this personal responsibility?
The International Center for Alcohol Policies (ICAP) did an in-depth study on drinking age limits.
There are no minimum drinking ages in Azerbaijan, China, the Russian state of Georgia, Portugal and Thailand.
The drinking age for beer and wine varies between 14 and 16 in Switzerland (it’s 18 for spirits).
The drinking age is 16 in Austria, Belgium, France, Italy, Germany (18 for spirits) and Spain (those under 16 may purchase beer and wine if accompanied by parents).
Those who are 18 are allowed to drink in Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Hong Kong, Hungary, Israel, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg (17 if accompanied by parent), Mexico, Moldova, Mongolia, Norway (20 for spirits), Peru, Poland, Slovak Republic, Slovenia, South Africa, Sweden, Turkmenistan, United Kingdom (16 for beer when consumed with meals), Uruguay and Venezuela.
Korea has a legal drinking age of 21 but college students under 21 may consume beverage alcohol.
As a basis for open dialogue with the scientific and public health communities and as a contribution to meaningful discourse concerning beverage alcohol’s role in society, the companies sponsoring the International Center for Alcohol Policies believe:
The vast majority of people who consume beverage alcohol do so responsibly and in order to enhance the quality of their lives.
When consumed moderately and in a responsible manner by those with good health and dietary habits and who have no medical reason to refrain from drinking, beverage alcohol is associated with very few risks of harm and has been reported to have some beneficial effects on health.
Irresponsible consumption of beverage alcohol is associated with a variety of risks to the individual and to the public in health, social, economic, and safety contexts. Irresponsible consumption refers to high levels of intake, either on single occasions or repeatedly, or to drinking under inappropriate circumstances or by those who should not be drinking at all.
Alcohol policies need to be based upon an objective understanding of available research on alcohol use and abuse; and should aim to create a reasonable balance of government regulation, industry self-regulation and individual responsibility.
Developing alcohol policy is a dynamic, evolving process, ICAP believes. It seeks to improve communication and cooperation at the international level.
ICAP projects focus on the concept of responsibility as a shared commitment involving individuals, families, communities, governments, scientists, public health officials, the beverage alcohol industry and the hospitality industry.
The above article was contributed by Julianne Crispin, Editor, Pennsylvania’s Beverage Journal Observer.
Gary Galanis, who will step down as President of the Brewers Association of America to join Guinness/UDV of North America, as the new Director of Public Relations in its Washington, D.C. office. Congratulations to Gary!
Milwaukee’s Miller plant, whose production was
interrupted, to ship out 1,000 cases of drinking water for tornado victims
in Moore, Oklahoma, earlier this summer. Diane Markut, corporate
communications manager for Miller said, “we know how important clean
drinking water can be to tornado victims, and hope that it helps to ease
the devastation in some way.”
Jeers to…
Presidential hopeful Elizabeth Dole, whose professional history was cited in The Washington Times after the Iowa GOP straw polls put her in the third-place slot. Included in her repertoire: DOT mandates for a national minimum drinking age of 21. This mandate, which makes federal highway subsidies conditional on states enacting the 21-year-old minimum age, creates a problem for any state legislature hoping to keep the drinking age at any level lower than 21. That is, unless they can do without funds to keep their roadways safe… Good enough for Liddy? Maybe not. An interview on CBS’s “Face the Nation” had Mrs. Dole suggesting that the federal ban on drinking “could be extended” to 24-year-olds. Yikes! Sounds like prohibition’s next on Liddy’s agenda.