• Ad Age, Friday, April 7, 2006 11:45 AM

The advancements in mobile marketing that allow advertisers to connect more easily with consumers' cell phones can come with a price. Just ask giant brewer Anheuser-Busch. The beer marketer is being accused of trying to sell beer to underage drinkers by a watchdog group following a deal AB cut with MobiTV, which provides programming to U.S. Sprint, Cingular and Alltel phones. Tim Murphy, A-B's senior director-creative development, said the campaign will allow the brewer to market Bud Light and Budweiser Select to 21- to 35-year-olds via ads on MobiTV's 30 channels. But a spokesman for the Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog, accused the brewer of attempting to skew even younger. "Anheuser-Busch profits heavily from underage drinking, so it's no surprise they're advertising on the ultimate teen accessory," he said. A-B says it follows marketing guidelines established by the Beer Institute, an industry trade group, which require brewers to confine their advertising to places where at least 70 percent of the audience is expected to be adults of legal drinking age. "By adhering to this standard, we make it clear that we are advertising to that 70 percent of the American population who can drink our products lawfully," an A-B spokeswoman said. "MobiTV reports that 82 percent of its subscribers are between the ages of 21-39." According to Advertising Age's American Demographics, 81 percent of 18- to 21-year olds have cell phones, as well as 68 percent of 16- to 17-year olds and 49 percent of 13- to 15-year olds .

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