Contest sends anti-beer message

SAN RAFAEL, Calif. � Marin Institute has launched the country�s first anti-beer ad contest, Free the Bowl, this month. The contest for youth from ages 13-20 seeks original anti-beer ads of 30-60 seconds to counter excessive Super Bowl beer advertising.

Marin Institute, the alcohol industry watchdog, launched the contest at www.FreetheBowl.com and will use YouTube to collect youth-generated videos.

�Year after year, the Super Bowl delivers a huge youth TV audience to America�s biggest beer seller, An-heuser-Busch,� stated Bruce Livingston, executive director at Marin Institute. �Sound research and common sense tell us that the more often youth are exposed to alcohol advertising, the more likely they are to drink and drink to excess. Marin Institute is excited to give youth a new channel to protest oppressive beer ads at www.FreetheBowl.com.�

The latest research estimates that 10.7 million underage youth drink alcohol and 7.2 million of them binge drink. The alcohol that 80 percent of them choose to drink is beer. Alcohol related problems associated with underage drinking cost the country $60 billion per year and include nearly 2,000 deaths and hundreds of thousands of alcohol-fueled rapes and sexual assaults. The alcohol industry experiences its largest overall sales increase during the two-week period surrounding the Super Bowl.

�Anheuser-Busch and the National Football League (NFL) hide behind weak, ineffectual Beer Institute self-regulatory guidelines to justify exposing youth to exploitive alcohol ads,� said Michael Scippa, advocacy director at Marin Institute. �Big Alcohol turns a deaf ear to our protests, so we want them to hear compelling messages from young people who resent being targeted as new customers.�

Anheuser-Busch is spending between $14 and $19 million on ten minutes of ad time for 2009 Super Bowl beer ads. Some of the ads are expected to feature warm and fuzzy images and situations involving the iconic Clydesdale horses and a Dalmatian dog. Though Anheuser-Busch is being acquired by the foreign corporation InBev, Super Bowl beer ads are designed to pluck patriotic heartstrings while driving more youth to consume the so-called �Great American Lager.�

�If Anheuser-Busch and the NFL cared less about winning corporate profits and more about public health losses, they would end the youth-damaging practice of Super Bowl beer ads,� added Livingston.

Free the Bowl contest winners will be announced on Super Bowl Sunday, Feb. 1, 2009. The dead-line for entries is Jan. 25, 2009. Prizes include an Apple MacBook, iPod Touch and iPod Nano.

For contest rules, visit www.FreetheBowl.com.