Colleges, CSPI Urge NCAA To Rein In Beer Ads

College presidents and athletic directors from around the country--with the encouragement of the Center for Science in the Public Interest--are calling on the NCAA to review its policy on athletic advertising during NCAA sporting events, saying the current policy undermines the "values of sports and higher education."

In a letter sent to NCAA president Myles Brand, the more than 100 signees took issue with the amount of beer advertising during the Final Four tournament coverage earlier this week.

"Given the persistent problems caused by underage and excessive college drinking, much of it in the form of beer, we find it inconceivable that the NCAA's profiting from beer promotion during the telecasts of college basketball games comports with the best interests of higher education, sports or student welfare," according to the letter.

According to the CSPI, CBS broadcast more than 200 seconds of beer advertising during each of the three men's Final Four basketball games. That amount exceeds the NCAA's self-imposed limits (set in 2005) of not allowing more than 60 seconds of beer advertising per hour, and not more than 120 total seconds of beer advertising during the game, according to the CSPI.

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"The fact is, the NCAA has a totally bogus policy [in regards to] alcohol advertising right now," George Hacker, director of the Alcohol Policy Project at CSPI, tells Marketing Daily. "Given the amazing prominence of beer advertising during the tournament, it's time to review [the policy] again."

Representatives from the NCAA were unavailable for comment at press time.

The letter also cited TNS Media Intelligence data showing that beer was the second-ranked advertising category during last year's NCAA tournament, and that Anheuser-Busch and Miller Brewing were the fourth and fifth-biggest advertisers during the tournament. "That says something about the prominence of beer and the massive disregard of the policy the NCAA has set," Hacker says.

While 285 NCAA-member colleges have endorsed a pledge to eliminate alcohol ads from college sports, only about 100 signed on to the most recent letter--very few of them from prominent Division 1 schools. Even so, Hacker expects the issue to gain some traction within the NCAA.

"Schools, as members of conferences, have a role to play in the shaping of the policies of those conferences," Hacker says. "I think the NCAA would want to listen to its members as a policy issue."

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