We Are Shocked, Shocked To Discover Drinking In College Sports

Ad Age
More than 100 college presidents and athletic directors are pushing NCAA President Myles Brand to take another look at alcohol ads on broadcasts of college games, charging that college sports and beer advertising are a "bad mix." The group is particularly incensed over the level of beer advertising during CBS' recent broadcast of the "March Madness" tournament.

Anheuser-Busch and SAB Miller are the Nos. 4 and No. 5 biggest advertisers in the games." The NCAA last reviewed its alcohol-advertising standards three years ago and limits advertising to products that don't exceed 6% alcohol levels -- i.e. beer and some wine coolers. And it also allows only one minute per hour of them. At least one activist group claims that CBS exceeded that limit.

For their part, ad and industry groups say the audience that watches is mostly of legal drinking age, with 88% of viewers of this year's tournament 21 or over and a median viewing age of 47.

A few questions for these oh so holy folks... do they limit military advertising? Political advertising? Pills to give old men wood? And why does liquor becomes awful and intolerable once it can get you drunk without pounding a crapload of them?

Oh, and also... why is it OK to make hundreds of millions of dollars from the relatively unpaid labor of mostly minority men, but not OK to make some of that money from liquor vendors? (I'll pass on how they feel about putting young women on display for the obvious sexual gratification of men, because even though I am the father of daughters, I'm not really interested in provoking a Taliban-like regime.)

Because, well, there's nothing quite like having your morality protected by people who are, um, scum. That's always a win, really.