Testimony of Francine Katz
Vice President, Corporate Communications
Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc.

Presented to:
United States House of Representatives
House Education Committee
Subcommittee on Education Reform

February 11, 2004

Good morning, Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman and distinguished members of the Subcommittee. My name is Francine Katz, and I’m the vice president responsible for Anheuser-Busch’s longstanding efforts to fight alcohol abuse, an area I have been working in since 1990. I also am the mother of a 17-year-old daughter and a 12-year-old son, so I am dealing with these issues as a parent, too.

I thank you for the opportunity to be here to address a topic that is important to all of us at Anheuser-Busch and to our fellow brewers. I hope that you remember three things from my statement here today: First, that the men and women who brew, package, distribute and sell America’s beers care about this issue and want to be part of the solution. The more than 830,000 people in this industry come from all walks of life. They are brewers and bottlers, wholesalers and waiters. They are MBAs and secretaries, sales people and union workers. They are churchgoers and members of their local PTAs. They are east coasters, west coasters and Midwesterners. They are men and women, moms and dads. And they have an important role in helping to resolve this problem. Second, that our nation truly has made some significant progress in the fight against underage drinking. And third, that education, starting early and in the home, is the best way to continue that progress.

Those of us in the beer industry are also in the hospitality business. Our beers are intended to be a refreshing accompaniment to social occasions or a simple reward after a long day’s work. We take great pride in being part of an industry that has had its roots in America since colonial times. We also understand the responsibility that goes along with making and marketing an adult product, and we have been at the forefront of efforts to fight the abuse of our products. I am proud to tell you that my company has invested nearly a half billion dollars thus far in these efforts, and we are committed to continuing these initiatives. And I speak for other members of our nation’s beer industry. While we compete with each other as fiercely as any industry in America, in this we are united: we don’t want kids to drink, and we are committed to giving parents and others who deal with the problem real solutions.

In addition to our company’s efforts, each of Anheuser-Busch’s independently owned beer wholesalers conduct alcohol awareness programs in their communities. These wholesalers have an individual within their organizations with responsibility for developing an alcohol awareness activities market plan and directing their local efforts. They do this by providing our educational materials to the public, making our alcohol awareness programs part of their promotions, and purchasing print, outdoor, radio and TV awareness ads. Equally important to this financial investment is the human capital that Anheuser-Busch and our wholesalers have expended in this fight. Whether it’s manning a booth to hand out materials designed to help parents talk to their kids about drinking; hosting training sessions for servers to help them spot fake IDs; meeting with school principals to offer third party speakers who address topics with students like drunk driving and alcohol awareness, this human capital demonstrates our collective commitment to being part of the solution.

We believe we have far more in common with the other witnesses on the panel than may appear at first blush. We all agree that underage drinking is a serious issue that we must aggressively fight. And I hope that we can channel our energies and resources toward this collective goal and find ways to work together in this fight.

We believe the most effective way to fight underage drinking is to use a three-prong approach, and the cornerstone of that approach is focused on parents. Don Elium, a family and child counselor, recently wrote a book called, “Raising a Teenager.” In his book, Elium says that the teenage years are like a second birth of sorts, and that teens need just as much time and attention at that stage of their lives as they did when they were born. Elium goes on to say, “One of the biggest mistakes parents make is letting them make decisions they have no business making…a family is not a democracy, it is a benevolent dictatorship.” As a mother myself, I know that to be true.

And despite what we may all think, youth themselves also favor strong parental involvement. According to the Roper Research Organization’s Youth Poll, a nationally representative survey, 73% of youth ages eight to 17 cite their parents, far and away, as the most influential factor in their decision to drink or refrain from drinking. This poll has been conducted for over a decade, and every year, youth have overwhelmingly identified their parents as the number one influence in this decision.

Accordingly, we have invested a significant amount of our efforts in programs for parents. One such program, a guide book and video for parents called “Family Talk About Drinking,” was created by an advisory panel of authorities from the areas of family counseling, alcohol treatment and education. It is available in five languages. We promote this free program through advertising and on our website, but over the years, we have also worked in partnership with groups and organizations across the country to get these materials into the hands of parents. For instance, we have worked with the attorneys general from various states to send these materials to parents. Working with the Association of Junior Leagues International, we have distributed “Family Talk” via the group’s local chapters through our network of 600 wholesalers throughout the country. And for parents of teens heading off to college, we have a program called “College Talk,” created by a group of authorities in the fields of student life, alcohol treatment and peer education. This program helps parents prepare their teens for responsible decision-making in college. “College Talk” is endorsed by the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, the American Association of State Colleges and Universities, the Social Norms Resource Center and the BACCHUS and GAMMA Peer Education Network.

The second prong to our efforts to fight underage drinking is aimed at the retail level, the point-of-purchase. Under the laws governing the sale and distribution of beer, we do not sell our products to consumers. Rather, we sell to our wholesalers, they sell to retailers and retailers sell to the public. As a result, retailers are on the front lines and they play a vital role in stopping underage drinking. In cooperation with police departments, county sheriffs, and other state and local agencies, we have worked aggressively to help retailers and servers stop sales to minors. We provide materials in English, Spanish, Korean and Vietnamese for retailers to teach them how to properly check IDs and to spot fake IDs. We also disseminate “WE ID” and other point-of-sale materials that remind customers that the establishment will ask for proper identification. Among the myriad of tools we provide retailers are such things as drivers license booklets that show valid licenses from all 50 states and serve as a useful tool for retailers—especially in college communities—who are confronted with IDs from all over the country. We have worked closely in these efforts with a number of major national retailers including 7-Eleven Stores, Circle K, Publix and Safeway Markets to put these materials to work in their stores. Our efforts in this regard were just featured in one of our Super Bowl commercials earlier this month, in which an attentive clerk deterred two teens in their attempt to buy beer.

We have also been a sponsor of several server-training programs, designed again to ensure the responsible sale and service of our products. These include Training in Intervention Procedures for servers of alcohol, or TIPs, a program developed by Dr. Morris Chafetz, founding director of the NIAAA. TIPs provides techniques for servers to avoid over serving and drunk driving situations and to ensure proper ID checking procedures. Similar training is also presented in the BarCode and Learn2Serve programs that we support.

Over the last decade, we have also joined with our colleagues at Miller and Coors through the Beer Institute and with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, Major League Baseball, and other professional sports leagues in a program called “TEAM” (which stands for “Techniques for Effective Alcohol Management”) to address underage drinking and abusive consumption at games and other major outdoor events. Through this partnership, we helped train all the staff at the 28 Major League Baseball stadiums in alcohol management techniques before opening day last year.

Finally, the third prong of our approach involves directing efforts at young people, to help them make good decisions. The most visible example of these efforts is a Speakers Bureau comprised of third parties from many walks of life who take their messages directly into schools. The members of the Anheuser-Busch Consumer Awareness and Education Speakers Bureau bring a message of responsibility and respect for the law to middle school and high school students around the country. With the support of our local wholesalers, over the past five years, these speakers have reached more than 1.4 million students via 4,700 presentations throughout the country. The speakers include:

• Barbara Babb, a former critical-care flight nurse, who delivers a graphic, factual and memorable presentation on video to high school and college students about the tragic consequences of underage drinking and drunk driving.

• Michael Chatman, who shares his message of self-empowerment and personal responsibility with students across the country. The son of an abusive father, Michael grew up in Miami, joined a gang and endured the trials of life on the wrong side of the law. Finally, following a series of life-altering events, he decided to transform his life. Today, Michael has reached more than one million teenagers, helping them realize that despite negative peer pressure, and the many other challenges they may face, underage drinking is not the answer.

• Dr. Lonnie Carton, a nationally recognized educator and family counselor, and host of the nationally syndicated radio program “Take a Minute for the Family.” Lonnie presents “Stepping Into Adolescence” a program for parents of middle-school children designed to help parents maintain open communication with their children during the middle-school years and throughout adolescence.

• Bob Anastas, the founder and former executive director of Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD), delivers a powerful presentation to high school and college students. Motivational in spirit, the program offers parents and students a timely message on how young people can build key life skills and make responsible decisions about the challenges they face. The program is also available on video.

• Emergency-room nurse Linda Dutil delivers a presentation, designed for middle-and high school students, about the real-world consequences that come from making poor choices about alcohol and drugs. Linda also teaches effective skills for resisting peer pressure and for making smart, responsible choices.

• Jason Barber tells the story of several teens, including his brother, each of who were drunk driving crash victims. What students learn during Jason’s powerful presentation is that he was the intoxicated driver responsible for his brother’s death. Jason was seriously injured and served prison time for vehicular manslaughter.

• Carolyn Cornelison, who holds a Ph.D. from Florida State University where she worked as director of the Campus Alcohol and Drug Information Center for four years while advising both BACCHUS & GAMMA, delivers a program called “Courage to Care,” which focuses on college drinking, taking responsibility, recognizing abuse and helping those with alcohol problems. A member of a sorority and a former collegiate student-athlete, Carolyn has taken her "Courage to Care" message to more than 350 college campuses and has been a part of numerous Greek education, athletic department and general campus health programs.

• The “Street Smart” program, taught by certified firefighter/paramedics, reminds students of the dangers of teen drinking, drunk driving, illegal drug use and not wearing seat belts. The program is available for presentation in English or Spanish, and uses factual information, actual medical equipment and demonstrations involving students to help them better understand the consequences of their actions. “Street Smart” is presented by members of “Stay Alive From Education” (S.A.F.E.), a non-profit organization created by firefighter/paramedics in Miami-Dade County, Florida, dedicated to reducing teen injuries and fatalities.

One of the things that each of these programs emphasizes is that there is no excuse for breaking the law—and youth must understand that such behavior will have consequences. While they are teens, our young people should not be led to believe that they are excused from acting responsibly and abiding by the law. They are expected to act with responsibility.

At the college level, we have supported campus programs that focus student attention on education and awareness, emphasizing personal responsibility and respect for the law – which means not drinking if you are under 21, and drinking responsibly if you are above the legal drinking age and choose to drink. These programs include, among others, unrestricted grants to colleges such as the University of Virginia, Florida State University, Georgetown University, Michigan State University and Virginia Commonwealth University to establish social norms programs, a positive approach that reminds college students that the large majority of their peers make healthy and responsible decisions about drinking. We have also worked closely for over three years with the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges, an organization representing more than 200 of America’s largest institutions, to promote social norms and encourage responsible behavior among college students. A recent comprehensive report issued by the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism (NIAAA) categorized social norms and other approaches supported by the industry as effective or promising.

I mentioned earlier that it was important to cite the progress that has been made on this front—to let parents know their efforts are working, and to salute those teens who are making the right decisions. And many are. Teen drinking and teen drunk-driving fatalities have declined significantly over the last two decades. According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 82% of today’s adolescents do not drink. That means nearly 20 million adolescents are doing the right thing by not drinking. Similarly, according to the University of Michigan survey called “Monitoring the Future,” sponsored by the National Institute on Drug Abuse, the percentage of high school seniors who report having a drink in the last 30 days was 32% lower in 2002 than it was in 1982. In 2003, there were nearly 410,000 fewer high school seniors who reported past-month drinking than did in 1982. And beer consumption by college freshmen fell 39% in the same time frame according to the American Council on Education and researchers at the University of California at Los Angeles. The latter two measurements are record lows.

In addition, the United States Department of Transportation reports that fatalities in crashes involving drunk drivers aged 16 to 20 have fallen 61% between 1982 and 2002. There were 2,500 fewer teen drunk-driving fatalities in 2002 than there were in 1982. That progress has been achieved even though the number of 16 to 20-year-olds licensed to drive has increased over 7% over the last decade to more than 12.4 million.

While many factors explain this success, and there is still significant room for improvement, we believe that one of reasons for the progress of the last 20 years is that different groups have come together to create programs that work.

And those groups include members of our industry. I am happy to report that I could give each member of this committee the names of many people in your districts among our ranks that work with us on similar efforts. I hope you would agree that it is good work.

Last year, the Federal Trade Commission issued a report on alcohol beverage industry self-regulation in which it reviewed industry-sponsored alcohol awareness programs. The FTC commended these programs and pointed out that they are developed by professionals in the fields of education, medicine or alcohol abuse and that they follow approaches recommended by alcohol research.

In discussing solutions and efforts that are yielding results, I would be remiss if I also didn’t address a fundamental difference we have with some on the issue of advertising and teen drinking.

Advertising is not what causes youth to drink. In fact, since 1982, Anheuser-Busch’s advertising expenditures have tripled, while teen drinking has declined 32 percent and teen drunk driving fatalities have declined 61 percent.

At the same time, our advertising is intended for adults, and those of us in the beer industry voluntarily undertake extensive steps to place our ads in adult programming. Our advertising is only placed in television, radio and magazines where the proportion of the audience above age 21 is reasonably expected to be 70% or higher. This standard reflects the demographics of the U.S. population, in which approximately 70% of the public is age 21 or older. The 2003 FTC report commended the industry’s self-regulation and also concluded that the industry did not target youth with its advertising.

As adults, we need to help youth navigate through an adult world, not try to pretend that adult activities don’t exist. In the end, underage drinking is not an advertising issue, it’s a family issue, and it’s a societal issue.

As you know, the National Academy of Sciences also reviewed these issues in its 2003 report. We have some fundamental differences with some of the National Academy’s recommendations. 

Although the recent National Academy’s recommendation to increase excise taxes is not part of our discussion here today, it is well known that the beer industry opposes such a measure; and I would like to take a brief moment to explain why.  Higher excise taxes are not an effective deterrent to abusive consumption or illegal underage drinking. The science on this issue was examined by the NIAAA in its 10th Special Report to Congress. Their conclusion is that no consensus exists in this debate. Research funded by the NIAAA indicates that teens are not impacted by higher taxes.  Further, the research on the effects of higher taxes on college students is also cited in the NIAAA report, and it concludes, “The results suggested that alcohol prices were a less salient determinant of the drinking behavior of college students than they were in other populations.”  Finally, a study coauthored by one of the National Academy’s panelists indicates that the effects of tax increases may be “considerably smaller than suggested in previous literature.” The bottom line is that we do not support this recommendation because there is no scientific consensus to show that it will reduce teen drinking. In addition, because excise taxes are highly regressive, a tax increase would force a large number of middle class adults who enjoy beer to bear an unfair and disproportional tax burden. 

In closing, let me reiterate that the efforts I have focused on today include not only those supported by Anheuser-Busch and its beer wholesalers, but also those supported by our colleagues at Miller, Coors, Heineken and other brewers.

We believe the best way to continue the progress made in the fight against underage drinking is through education, especially involving parents. And the collective investment we make in our youth will ensure their safe passage into adulthood.