A lawsuit filed against a handful of alcohol marketers seeks to recover “unlawful profits” gained by allegedly marketing alcohol to teens.
The suit, filed last month in the District of Columbia Superior Court, could become a class-action suit, report Dow Jones Newswires.
Defendants include Bacardi, Brown-Forman Corp., Coors Brewing Co., Diageo, Heineken NV, Kobrand (Alizé cognac), Mark Anthony Brands (Mike’s Hard Lemonade) and the Beer Institute, a DC-based industry trade group, per Dow Jones. Anheuser-Busch Cos. and Miller Brewing Co. are not named in the suit.
The suit, filed by Washington, DC, plastic surgeon Ayman Hakki and Fairfax, VA-based law firm Straus & Boies, charges the marketers with deliberately targeting underage consumers. It cites Diageo ads for Captain Morgan using a pirate character; Bacardi ads in FHM, Spin and Stuff, magazines with high-youth readership; and Coors’ promotional tie-in that put the Coors Light Twins in PG-13 rated Scary Movie 3, part of Coors’ seven-year deal with Miramax Films, the report said.
A Miramax spokesperson told Dow Jones that about 70% of past Scary Movie audiences were over 21. Coors won’t comment on pending litigation. A Diageo spokesperson told Dow Jones the company would vigorously defend itself.
Beer Institute President Jeff Becker called the suit “without merit” and told Dow Jones that the Federal Trade Commission finished an investigation earlier this year and concluded that self-regulation is working.
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