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Alcohol firms in spin over ads

Chicago - Big Alcohol got an early and unwanted holiday greeting this week when a Washington-area plastic surgeon hit a handful of beverage companies with a lawsuit charging them with targeting underage drinkers.

Among the named defendants in Ayman R. Hakki v. Adolph Coors et al are Brown-Forman, Coors, Diageo, Heineken, Bacardi and Mike's Hard Lemonade.

Anheuser-Busch, which took a lot of heat for its supposed child-friendly 'Budweiser Frogs' campaign and spends as much on ads as any other alcohol company, is not named in the suit. Among the other big alcohol firms omitted are SABMiller, Allied Domecq, Constellation Brands and Fortune Brands.

Filed in District of Columbia Superior Court, the suit claims that the named firms have engaged in a "long-running, sophisticated and deceptive scheme to market alcoholic beverages to children and other underage consumers" and that they generate billions of dollars per year in revenue from them.

The suit relies heavily on data, later discredited, from a study purporting to show that minors consume between 15% and 20% of all alcohol sold in the US.

The lawsuit "seeks to disgorge the unlawful profits these companies have made through the illegal sale and use of their products and to stop the abusive marketing practices that contributed to these illegal sales".

To that end, Hakki wants the court to certify a guardian class "consisting of all persons who were or are parents or guardians of minor children whose funds were used to purchase alcohol ... during the period 1982 to the present". He also wants an injunctive class consisting of all parents and guardians of children currently under 12 - tens of millions of people.

In a written statement, Brown-Forman insisted that it markets its products responsibly, said that the company adheres to a "strong internal marketing code", and that it would "vigorously" contest the case.

Neither of the two other public companies named - Coors or Diageo - returned phone calls late on Wednesday.

The suit charges that the companies named advertise extensively in youth oriented media and use promotional themes - including cartoon characters - designed to appeal to youngsters.

  • This story was supplied by CBSMarketWatch.
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