Youngsters Enjoy Beer Ads, Arousing Industry's Critics

[SOURCE: New York Times, AUTHOR: Andrew Adam Newman]
Beer companies pledge not to aim their message at underage drinkers, but on Super Bowl Sunday, they hit the target anyway. The yearly Adbowl poll, in which participants rate Super Bowl ads online during the game, breaks down voting by age and other demographic measures. In the category of voters under the age of 17, Bud Light ads ranked first, second and fourth in popularity. A Budweiser ad won third. Critics of the alcohol industry are not so sanguine. Amon Rappaport, a spokesman for the Marin Institute, an industry watchdog based in California, objected to an Anheuser-Busch Super Bowl ad in which a young Clydesdale pulls its first wooden beer cart. "Using a baby Clydesdale to sell beer to kids is just like using Joe Camel to sell cigarettes," Mr. Rappaport said. In a written response, Francine I. Katz, a vice president of Anheuser-Busch, which brews Budweiser, Michelob and other brands, cited Nielsen Media Research indicating that 89 percent of Super Bowl viewers were 21 or older, while the median viewer age was 43. "Based on those numbers, it's simply ridiculous to suggest that underage people are the intended audience for these ads," Ms. Katz said.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/13/business/media/13super.html
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