Local Professor: Some Beer Ads Paint False Picture Of Drinking Among Millenials
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A couple companies which make beer and hard soda have ad campaigns running now that target moderate drinking in millennials. But are millennials actually moderate?
Heineken and Harry's Hard Soda have commercials advocating moderation. Heineken even has a survey on its website claiming millennials are consciously limiting their alcohol consumption. But Alex Stein, professor at Temple University's Fox School of Business, says that's nonsense.
"All the other statistics indicate that there is excessive drinking on campus and that younger people engage in dangerous behaviors," Stein says, "so I don't know where they found this information, but it's easy to cherry pick the research that supports your position and that's what, I think, they effectively have done."
Heineken was asked to provide the survey questions supporting it's claims, but declined. Stein says this has been going on for years.
"These brands, and that's including Phillip Morris has done this in the past," Stein says, "they're all trying to deflect criticism by engaging in social marketing."
