Welcome to nobullbar.com from Diageo North America. I’m Guy Smith, Executive Vice President of Diageo North America and will be serving as host of nobullbar.com. I guess you may be wondering why the world’s largest beer, wine and spirits company would have a blog in the first place and also why we would call it nobullbar.com.

Well, here’s why. Diageo North America is the biggest player in the alcohol business. We take great pride in the way we make and market our products. We have the toughest marketing code of conduct in the industry and we are serious about living up to both the letter and the spirit of that code. We are quite aggressive about putting social responsibility reminders in our advertising and on our promotional materials. We advance legislation that is designed to prevent underage access to alcohol. We do not want underage persons having access to our products. We don’t want that business. We don’t need that business. Lots more on this as we go forward.

It won’t surprise you to learn that the subject of alcohol frequently elicits very strong emotions from many people. And in a country that thrives on and benefits from the free expression of ideas that is a good thing. What’s not a good thing is when free expression twists facts in ways that are simply not true in the hopes of advancing a cause. That’s the second reason why we’re here with nobullbar.com. We’ll be highlighting in this space some of the more egregious examples.

What’s important to remember is what Abraham Lincoln had to say about alcohol: “The making of liquor is regarded as an honorable livelihood. If people are injured from the use of liquor, the injury arises not from the use of a bad thing but from the abuse of a very good thing.” Alcohol abuse is a real problem. Underage access to alcohol is a real problem. We take pride in the fact that our company and our employees work very hard to address these issues and to always remind our consumers to drink responsibly.

Too often these days the efforts of thousands of well-meaning, thoughtful, and dedicated citizens, including our company and its employees, are overshadowed by the misstatements of those masquerading as serious policy advocates.

For example …

Here’s an example, just for starters. But we’ll be back in this space frequently to point out, comment upon, and clarify some of these outrageous things that are said about alcohol and alcohol companies.

You may have noticed the other day an announcement from a group called the National Center on Addiction and Substance Abuse (CASA). These guys have a history of issuing specious studies on alcohol. CASA’s deeply flawed study claims that huge portions of the alcohol industry’s revenue come from underage drinkers, 17.5 percent, according to their claims. Now, in order to get to such a boxcar number, CASA followed this assumption: every underage drinker, from 12 to 20 years of age, must consume 100 drinks a month in order to arrive at that claimed 20.1 billion drinks that CASA claims young people between 12 and 20 drink per year.

Nice try CASA, but that just won’t wash.

Think about it. Even one 12-year-old who is drinking is one too many, but can we really believe that there are thousands of 12-year-olds out there drinking 100 drinks per month. Give me a break. Want to see for yourself? Here’s the press release from CASA and here’s a couple of analytical documents from some of our colleagues at the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States. OK, so you’re thinking, sure, what do you expect somebody from the liquor industry’s trade association to say? What we expect them to say is the truth. Not something we’re getting from Susan Foster and her boss, Joe Califano. Check out the DISCUS analysis and you can see for yourself how the facts are being twisted.

Now, before you go thinking that Smith is just picking on CASA and Susan Foster, let me tell you a bit more. Susan and CASA are serial statistic abusers. Now that’s kinda harsh. Read on.

On February 26, 2002, CASA released a 145-page report on alcohol consumption leading with the attention-grabbing statistic that 25 percent of all the beverage alcohol consumed in the US is consumed by people between the ages of 12 and 20 – or “children,” as the study delivered. CASA’s statistical conclusion, as startling as it was inaccurate, was based on data taken from a comprehensive 1998 National Household Survey on Drug Abuse that was conducted by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA).

Upon seeing an advance copy of the CASA report the day before it was to be released, at Diageo we immediately recognized the 25% figure as inaccurate so we contacted SAMHSA and asked them the check their original study upon which CASA based it’s report. At the same time, economists from DISCUS did their own demographic analysis. Quickly, CASA’s study was proven wrong.

By matching the population of 12-20 year olds (according to the 2000 census) and the total amount of alcohol consumed, DISCUS found that in order for CASA’s 25% figure to be correct, everyone in that age bracket would have had to consume at least 120 drinks a month. Not likely.

Simultaneously, SAMHSA was comparing its original data to the conclusions drawn by CASA and they soon found CASA’s methodology completely flawed. While the 12 to 20 age group represented 38% of those surveyed by SAMHSA, the group only accounts for 13% of the total US population. Clearly CASA had not weighted the sample correctly. Rather than 25%, the real number was more like 11.4%.

The next morning, CASA called a D.C. press conference to release its “blockbuster” study to the media. As they were releasing the study, we made sure that the media had the correct numbers. By early afternoon CASA was in full retreat and was forced to issue a statement repudiating their own major study released only hours earlier.

The next morning the New York Times ran the CASA story on the front page under the headline: “Disturbing Findings on Young Drinkers Proves to be Wrong.” Not exactly the headline CASA was hoping to see. But the truth was exposed. And although some real-time electronic media reported the 25% figure immediately after the press conference, including NBC Nightly News, almost all corrected their reports within hours. And on the evening of February 26th, during the following evening’s news broadcast, Tom Brokaw read a correction.

Alcohol abuse of any kind is too important for this kind of folly. This is serious. We are serious. And we think everyone involved in alcohol policy should be serious—and play with the facts. Twisting information and masquerading as real research to advance some policy goal does a real disservice to all of us who work to keep alcohol out of reach of underage persons. There are way too many serious people in the United States who feel very deeply that we need to create alcohol public policy based on the facts.

Well that’s it for openers. Maybe CASA will post a comment. I hope they do and I hope they come to nobullbar.com to explain themselves. I look forward to your comments as well.

So welcome to nobullbar.com. We’re glad you visited. We hope you’ll come back. And we hope to advance the debate on alcohol policy in a real and substantive manner without resorting to masquerades.

Cheers!
guy