The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence fights the stigma and the disease of alcoholism and other drug addictions.

NCADD News Release

For More Information, Contact: Sarah Kayson, Director for Public Policy Jeffrey Hon, Director for Public Information
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- For Immediate Release:
Statement re:	14th Annual Harlan H. Hubbard Lemon Award "Winner": Miller Beer
Attribute to:	Sarah Kayson, Director for Public Policy
This year's Hubbard Award winner is a clever, yet cynical, commercial. This ad clearly shows that Miller Beer's best customers, heavy drinkers, are fair game by portraying its beer as "man's best friend." If you ask an alcoholic what he or she turned to in times of need, a likely response is "a bottle of beer." Does Miller really mean to say beer is the best friend to the eight million Americans who are addicted to the drug? Can it really be serious when it calls beer man's best friend when seventy-five percent of abused spouses say that their attackers used alcohol (it certainly isn't a woman's best friend in that case)? And surely Miller isn't suggesting that beer is the best friend of the families of the 17,000 Americans who died in alcohol-related car crashes last year. Certainly, alcohol is not a student's best friend. The tragic alcohol-related deaths of college students, many highly publicized and others not well known except to family and friends, prove that. Beer is also not the best friend of the students who don't drink, but suffer from the actions of those who do — a second-hand drink, if you will. Non-drinking students report loss of sleep and study time, unwanted sexual advances and property damage because of fellow students' alcohol-induced behavior. Fortunately, schools are recognizing that beer is not their best friend and they are ending their financial relationships with beer makers. The University of Kentucky is the latest to eliminate the connection between beer and college sports after two football players were killed in an alcohol-related car crash. Secretary of Health and Human Services Donna Shalala and Surgeon General David Satcher have called on colleges and universities to follow the lead of UK, the University of North Carolina, and others to break the link between alcohol and college sports. For years, members of the industry have maintained that they don't want consumers to "abuse" their products. They suggest that people "take it easy" or "enjoy in moderation," despite the fact that they make most of their money off heavy drinkers. They know that 10 percent of drinking population drinks 50 percent of the alcohol consumed in the United States. If the American public abided by the federal Dietary Guidelines' definition of moderate drinking (which is no more than one 12 ounce can of beer a day for women and two a day for men), alcohol producers' sales, and presumably profits, would be cut dramatically. Miller Beer has exposed the real agenda of the producers, which we have long suspected. They target their most vulnerable customers, in this case people addicted to their products. With friends like that, who needs enemies? The National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence provides education, information, help and hope in the fight against the chronic, often fatal disease of alcoholism and other drug addictions. Founded in 1944, NCADD is a voluntary health organization with ta nationwide network of Affiliates. NCADD advocates prevention, intervention, research and treatment and is dedicated to ridding the disease of its stigma and its sufferers from their denial and shame. 1/15/99

National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, Inc.

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