Anheuser-Busch Agrees to National Withdraw of All Alcoholic Energy Drinks

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11 States Attorneys General Say Energy Drinks Targeted Illegal Underage Drinkers

OhioNewsBureau 

COLUMBUS, OHIO: Six attorneys general, led by Steven Rowe of Maine, announced Thursday a settlement agreement with Anehuser-Busch, the maker of Tilt and Bud Extra, that it will immediately discontinue the company’s production, distribution and marketing of these alcohol and energy drinks, based on their investigation that showed they violated consumer and trade practice laws that made false claims regarding the energizing effects of these drinks to a population that often consisted of underage teenagers.

“Caffeine doesn’t do anything to offset alcohol on motor skills,” said Rowe, who led the discussion and whose office coordinated a conference call this afternoon among five other state AGs that the OhioNewsBureau participated in. He said today’s announcement by Anheuser-Bush, headquartered in St. Louis, Missouri, and listed by Fortune Magazine as one of America’s Most Admired Companies for 2008, that it will discontinue two of its popular pre-mixed alcoholic energy drinks avoids a battle in court and showed the company’s leadership, something he said he hopes the dozen or more other producers of such drinks will also do.

In a statement, Anheuser-Busch said that in cooperation with the states, is will reformulate Bud Extra and Tilt products to remove the caffeine and guarana from them.

In a statement about the settlement announced today by Anheuser-Busch and carried CNNMONEY.com, the company said the findings by the states attorney generals "contains no findings that Anheuser-Busch engaged in unlawful behavior or advertised to youth, and it points to no documents stating that Anheuser did so."

Rowe said the company is free to reformulate the drinks but they would be monitored closely.

OHIO AG ROGERS  SAYS HER OFFICE WILL BE VIGILANT

Ohio Attorney General Nancy Rogers, who is new to the post having served 14 years as a university administrator, seven of which were as the Dean of The Ohio State University Law School, and who was recently appointed by Gov. Ted Strickland to it in the wake of sexual scandals that forced Marc Dann, elected by Ohioans to it in 2006, said the “combination of high caffeine with alcohol appeals to young people…who often form the wrong belief that the caffeine in the drinks will counteract the intoxicating effects of the alcohol,” a sales pitch she said expressed and implied “false or misleading health-related statements about the energizing effects of the beverages.”

Rogers said in a media release that Ohio will continue to investigate alcoholic energy drinks manufactured by other companies and will be working with state and federal officials to encourage further research and regulation in relation to these products.

COOL, CATCHY MARKETING SLOGANS TURNED DRINKS INTO "RECIPE FOR DISASTER"

Other on the conference call, including Maryland AG Douglas Gansler, Arizona AG Terry Goddard, Idaho AG Lawrence Wasden and Connecticut AG Richard Blumenthal, took their turn commenting on the agreement that was triggered by marketing claims coupled with published research about the dangers of these products, that then led to a multi-state investigation into the content and marketing of Anheuser-Bush products that fell under the auspices of state consumer protection and trade practice statues. The claims pursued by these Attorney Generals and those of five other states (California, Illinois, Iowa, New Mexico and New York) not on today’s call related to the false advertising that the AGs said were targeted more to underage teenage drinks that also appealed to drinkers of legal age.

While Rowe of Maine said the drinks were a “recipe for disaster” that often lead to sexual assault and physical injury, Gansler of Maryland said some of the popular slogans used to sell the product – “You can sleep when you’re 30,” “You’ll last longer than a Hollywood Marriage,” and “Be the life of the after party” – when coupled with promotional giveaways like surfboards, skateboards and music downloads were too much for a teenager of 13 or 14 to resist. He said that when the caffeine wore off, kids were still “stone drunk.”

The AGs called on other manufacturers of alcoholic energy drinks to follow the lead of Anheuser-Bush, a company that in spite of producing drinks like Tilt and Bud Extra they applauded for addressing it in a “responsible and straightforward way” and voluntarily scrubbing these products from store shelves without having to do so at the end of a long, costly battle in court. Wasden, Idaho

Connecticut’s Blumenthal cited a study done at Wake Forrest University of 4,271 college students from 10 North Carolina universities that showed that one-quarter of those student drinkers had mixed alcohol with energy drinks in the past 30 days. “This is not an isolated phenomenon,” he said, adding that it is wide spread and prevalent that results in car crashes, criminal incidents including sexual assaults.

Rowe, when asked by a reporter whether documents confirming the company had expressly marketed the drinks to underage drinkers were available, said they were but declined to say more based on his contention they because this agreement represented a settlement, they were confidential. He turned the reporter’s question around, saying that in the settlement with big tobacco reached years ago, the company’s smooth cartoon figure, Joe Camel, was made to appeal to youngsters but also appealed to older aged kids as well.

To reach this reporter at OhioNewsBureau with story ideas or leads, send an email to ohionewsbureau@gmail.com