YOUTH-MARKETING LIMITS ARE SOUGHT TO CURB DRINKING

You're not alone, Joe Camel. The Budweiser Frogs -- and their lizard
antagonists -- are feeling the heat, too.

With the federal government threatening to ban tobacco advertisements
deemed appealing to young people, Bay Area children's advocates are pushing
for a wide range of restrictions on alcohol ads as well:

In Santa Cruz County, they recently won an unprecedented pledge from two
Watsonville liquor distributors to halt Halloween-oriented alcohol
promotions. Now community organizers are pressuring for an even broader
year-round ban, in part because of recent claims that a teenager was hired
to boost beer sales by flirting with patrons at bars.

Oakland just passed a law banning alcohol billboards near homes. San Jose
and Berkeley are mulling similar bans. So are some cities in Contra Costa
County, where billboard owners already have agreed to keep such ads away
from schools in unincorporated areas.

Activists in San Jose and other California cities are working to bar
pro-drinking messages at Latino festivals. Vallejo residents are pushing
merchants to reduce the number of ads plastered on liquor store windows.
And a Felton attorney has bought Anheuser-Busch stock along with other
activists in hopes of dissuading the beer-maker from promoting its products
with frogs or other child-appealing characters.

The trend troubles those in the alcohol and advertising business.

``It's misguided to suggest that the problem of underage drinking or
alcohol abuse started when advertising started,'' said Francine Katz of
Anheuser-Busch, which is under fire for its Budweiser frogs. ``We work
really hard to ensure that people who drink our products are adult and that
they drink responsibly.''

Cartoons defended

Besides, said Clark Rector Jr., an official with the American Advertising
Federation in Washington, ``the fact that you use a cartoon doesn't mean
you're de facto going after an underage audience.''

But critics don't buy that. They believe much of the alcohol industry's
marketing -- from wisecracking lizards to cute Dalmatian pups -- is
purposely aimed at young people.

After all, they say, tobacco firms also long denied peddling cigarettes to
kids. But earlier this year, internal documents made public from R.J.
Reynolds Tobacco Co. strongly suggested it had targeted children as young
as 14 for years.

``I'm very encouraged by what is happening,'' said Berkeley activist Joan
Kiley. ``As grass-roots communities really get clearer on what's happening
to them and how they have been exploited, they want to take action to
protect themselves and their children.''

One reason for concern is that lots of young people already drink -many of
them heavily.

A federally financed survey of 51,000 students nationwide by the University
of Michigan last year found that one out of every four eighth-graders --
and more than half the 12th-graders -- admitted using alcohol during the
previous 30 days.

It also found that 15 percent of the eighth graders -- and 31 percent of
the 12th graders -- were binge drinkers. That meant they had at least five
drinks in a row within the previous two weeks.

Such heavy indulgence can have dangerous side effects, as Pepper O'Dea, a
San Jose mother of four, discovered last month. On Feb. 28, her 13-year-old
daughter -- who suffers from asthma -- got so drunk with some neighborhood
friends that she began having breathing problems, collapsed on the street
and had to be rushed to a hospital.

O'Dea mostly blames an adult who bought the malt liquors. But she also
objects to ads that feature cuddly pets and seem to suggest, ``Oh, that dog
is cute and maybe I should try that beer,'' she said. ``It's not right.''

Each year, the alcohol industry spends what some activists have estimated
to be more than $1 billion on ads. That doesn't count its sponsorship of
concerts, sporting events and festivals -- an annual tab estimated by some
at another $1 billion.

Whether that marketing blitz influences children to drink isn't clear from
the research already done. Still, the evidence suggests many children are
aware of the cartoon icons used in alcohol ads.

A 1996 study of 221 children ages 9 to 11 by the Berkeley-based Center on
Alcohol Advertising found them more familiar with the Budweiser frogs than
they were with Tony the Tiger, Smokey Bear or the Mighty Morphin' Power
Rangers.

Dismayed by such findings, residents in a number of Bay Area communities
are fighting back.

In Santa Cruz County, for example, activists won an agreement last year
from the two Watsonville alcohol wholesalers -- Couch Distributing Co. and
Elyxir Distributing Co. -- to help curtail alcohol promotions in stores on
Halloween. Community organizers call it the first such pact in the country.
Even so, they are seeking an even broader ban.

Billboards, schools

Among other things, they have formally asked the distributors to oppose the
use of cartoon characters in ads, eliminate billboard promotions near
schools and help halt the practice of young women pushing beer in bars. The
latter demand stems from allegations last October by a 19-year-old woman
who claimed Couch hired her to don a slinky Corona beer outfit and flirt at
several bars to encourage male customers to drink. The underage woman
claimed she also drank.

At the time, a Couch official was quoted in the Santa Cruz Sentinel as
acknowledging it had hired the woman, but denied causing her harm. Geoff
Couch, vice president of marketing, said last week that his firm had been
unaware of the woman's age, but wouldn't say more about the matter. Couch
was unaware of the latest request for an expanded ad ban. Officials at
Elyxir couldn't be reached for comment.

The Oakland City Council passed a law in December limiting tobacco and
alcohol billboard ads to industrial and commercial areas. It goes into
effect later this month.

A similar measure is to be discussed by Berkeley's city council on Tuesday.
Officials in Contra Costa County and San Jose are studying the idea, too.
Meanwhile, Latino activists in San Jose and elsewhere aim to end alcohol
promotions at Cinco de Mayo festivals.

``We'd like the alcohol industry to cease and desist using cultural icons
to target Latinos,'' said Eduardo Hernandez of CalPartners, a
substance-abuse prevention group behind the campaign.

Another approach is being tried by James Mosher, a Felton lawyer and
official with the Marin Institute for the Prevention of Alcohol and Other
Drug Problems. He and other local activists bought stock in Anheuser-Busch
and have been trying for four years to persuade the company to stop using
cartoon-character ads.

Join 'em, beat 'em?

Although the firm's response so far has been ``an absolute stonewall,''
Mosher said, the group plans to try again at the corporation's April 22
shareholder meeting.

Industry officials have vowed to fight any restriction on ads. They already
have sued several cities -- including Baltimore and Chicago -to overturn
ordinances restricting alcohol billboards. And although a federal appeals
court recently upheld Baltimore's law, they hope the U.S. Supreme Court
will consider the issue.

Local activists concede the anti-alcohol-ad campaign could prove lengthy
with so much public attention focused on tobacco.

Still, attitudes may be hardening toward alcohol ads, if a national survey
commissioned last year by the Center on Alcohol Advertising is an
indication. Of the 1,033 adults questioned, two thirds thought such ads
influenced teen drinking. Moreover, 78 percent believed they should be
barred from TV shows where a fourth of the viewers were under 21.

``We're kind of on the coattails of the tobacco movement,'' said the
center's director, Laurie Leiber, who has two children, 9 and 15. ``It will
take a while,'' Leiber said of the group's efforts, ``but I think it's kind
of inevitable. . . . This industry is profiting from the misery of
others.''