BEER AND FAST CARS: HOW BREWERS TARGET BLUE-COLLAR YOUTH THROUGH MOTOR SPORT SPONSORSHIPS

As a follow-up to its widely-distributed study, MYTHS, MEN & BEER, the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety has sponsored a new study which focuses on the targeting of vulnerable traffic accident groups by brewers in their sales promotion activities. According to the study, the beer industry has turned its attention to blue-collar youth and spends up to $50 million per year on motor sport sponsorships to complement and amplify their media advertising campaigns by joining masculinity, risk, excitement, and beer in the actual "lived" experiences of potential consumers. Young males from blue-collar backgrounds are particularly likely to be involved in fatal alcohol related crashes. They tend to drink more beer and drink to the point of intoxication more often than peers in other groups. They are also more likely to drive after drinking, and are also more frequently arrested for doing so. In sponsorships corporations support a sport in return for agreements on product promotions. Among the findings of the study are the following: of all industry sponsors, brewers are second only to the tobacco industry in amount spent; sports receive the largest share by far of sponsorship dollars; motor sports receives the most sponsorship money of all types of sports; the brewing industry spent more than $180 million during 1987 on sports sponsorship; and the annual growth of sponsorship is expected to triple that of advertising.

• Corporate Authors:

  AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety

  607 14th Street, NW, Suite 201
  Washington, DC    20005
• Authors:
  • Buchanan, D R
  • Lev, J
• Publication Date: 1990-4

Media Info

• Features: Photos; References;
• Pagination: 92 p.

Subject/Index Terms

• TRT Terms: Adolescents; Advertising; Alcohol use; Alcoholic beverages; Behavior; Drivers; Drunk driving; Fatalities; Intoxication; Males; Speeding; Teenage drivers; Traffic crashes; Working class; Young adults
• Uncontrolled Terms: Beer; Blue collar workers
• Old TRIS Terms: Male drivers
• Subject Areas: Highways; Safety and Human Factors; I83: Accidents and the Human Factor;

Filing Info

• Accession Number: 00494883
• Record Type: Publication
• Source Agency: AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety
• Report/Paper Numbers: HS-040 654
• Files: HSL, TRIS
• Created Date: Jun 30 1990 12:00AM