Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, May 30, 1990 TAG: 9005300108
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: RONALD SMOTHERS THE NEW YORK TIMES
DATELINE: CONCORD, N.C. LENGTH: Long
A winning race car emblazoned with the black and gold emblem of Miller Genuine Draft: It was just such an association that came under attack last week from a group charging that brewers were fostering a link between their product and fast driving.
In the heaviest drinking and heaviest driving season of the year, said Alexander Wagenaar, chairman of the National Association to Prevent Impaired Driving, a coalition of about 100 traffic safety, health and public policy groups, the link is "a sure recipe for disaster."
It is doubly dangerous, said the group in a study titled "Beer and Fast Cars," because the primary targets of the promotions are "blue-collar male youth" between 18 and 24.
These people make up the bulk of beer drinkers as well as the bulk of those involved in auto accidents and arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol, the group went on.
Three beer companies, Miller, Anheuser-Busch and Coors, together invest $50 million a year on promotions.
They pay for things such as signs at race tracks, sophisticated television commercials and the sponsorship of race teams to promote their product through auto races.
Some of the targets of these marketing campaigns had come to Charlotte Motor Speedway here for a weekend of racing, enduring bumper-to-bumper traffic to sit in grandstands where they were broiled by sun and bombarded by the sound of explosive engines as well as product messages.
Others had trooped to the infield caldron of the 1.5-mile banked oval, where they perched atop makeshift platforms on truck beds, vans or recreational vehicles and pitched tents and picnic tables for a weekend of relaxation. Ubiquitous in this array was the cooler packed, legally, with the drink of choice: beer.
"I come down here every year for relaxation, and beer is part of that," said 29-year-old Johnny Jett of Charlotte, who said he had consumed at least five cans of beer Monday from a stash of four cases that he and six friends brought to the track.
"Of course, I would be drinking beer even if I was home and so I don't think the sponsors influence me. I sure can't drive in my condition, but we have a designated driver."
That was Regina Martin, 26.
"Beer is just part of the scene of coming here, and you get all kinds of people, some nice and some rowdy, so you just ignore them," she said, and then pointed across the parking area to a spot where two men, apparently passed out, slept among discarded beer cans.
"Now those guys there pulled in last night, and they were drunk when they got here. I don't even think they know they are at an auto race."
When told about the charges by the safety coalition, Mickey Landreth, a 46-year-old maintenance supervisor who was at the race with five of his friends, saw hypocrisy and class bias.
"We sit out here drinking our beer and watching the race out in the open and they sit around their private yacht clubs and country clubs behind closed doors sipping their wine and champagne," he said.
"The beer companies are just trying to associate themselves with a sport I love. They aren't forcing me to buy or drink anything."
The national coalition plans an effort to get beer companies as well as cigarette companies to end their presence in auto races voluntarily.
They argue that other sponsors, from the traditional auto products manufacturers to consumer products such as Tide, Alka-Seltzer, Ultra-Slim Fast diet formula and Snickers candy bars, could easily keep auto racing thriving, which is the second-largest spectator sport next to football.
Ron Richards, the sports marketing public relations manager for Miller, and others in the brewing industry criticized the coalition study as "pseudo-science" that is rife with factual errors.
"The name of this game is politics, and the political agenda of our critics is to stigmatize and thereby isolate our companies, our products and our consumers with the ultimate result of eliminating the right of adult Americans to enjoy a glass of beer," said James Sanders, president of the Washington-based Beer Institute.
Marshaling their own experts, industry spokesmen said the coalition erred in its "elitist" characterization of the audience for racing and in suggesting that the major marketing targets were 18- to 24-year-olds.
Jim Foster, a spokesman for the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, said its studies showed that 95 percent of its audience was over 21, 63 percent had annual incomes between $25,000 and $75,000, 50 percent were high school graduates and 53 percent were either professionals, managers or skilled laborers.
Stephen Burrows, vice president for consumer awareness and education for Anheuser-Busch Brewing, said the demographics of beer consumers were similar to those of most sports fans, and particularly auto racing fans.
"We're trying to get the best return on our advertising dollar and yes, the idea is association between our product and a sport people love," he said.
"But they are making a quantum leap to say that this association leads to alcohol abuse. No one would suggest that Tide's sponsorship of Darrell Waltrip's race car will make people wash more and wash to abuse."
Keywords:
AUTO RACING
by CNB