Beer Industry to Pour It on Tax Hike in Ads : Advertising: One campaign contrasts diamond lovers with beer drinkers. Consumers are urged to call Congress.

It is a question only the giant beer makers could think to pose: What’s the difference between a diamond bracelet and a can of beer?

Answer: You pay more excise tax on the beer.

That is the advertised message in a new, carefully targeted print campaign aimed at persuading Congress not to increase taxes on beer. The ad, sponsored by a Washington-based industry trade group, the Beer Institute, has just begun to appear in newspapers in the home states of 14 key congressmen taking part in budget negotiations.

Although the ad is not scheduled to appear in the Los Angeles area, it will be printed in several papers in the Monterey area, home to the Democratic chairman of the House Budget Committee, Leon E. Panetta.

At the same time, the nation’s largest brewery, Anheuser-Busch, is sponsoring TV and radio commercials in staunch opposition to the beer tax. The spots will be broadcast later this week to the most loyal of beer drinkers: baseball fans. They are also scheduled to begin airing Wednesday during nightly newscasts in the Washington area.

The TV ads, locally on cable networks CNN and ESPN, show scenes from past Budweiser spots of hard-working people who reach for beer when their jobs are done. “Americans pay over $3 billion a year in beer taxes,” one ad says. “So don’t pay more for what you’ve already earned. Tell ‘em to can the beer tax.”

Sponsors declined to reveal the costs of the two ad campaigns. But advertising executives estimate that the combined costs could exceed $5 million. The print and broadcast campaigns ask beer drinkers to do one thing: dial a toll-free phone number to urge Congress to reject increased excise taxes on beer.

Federal taxes on beer average about 16 cents per six pack. Under one budget proposal, excise taxes could double to about 32 cents. Beer industry executives estimate that a tax increase could result in a 5% drop in already flat beer sales.

“The people who pay beer taxes already pay far, far more than their share,” said Stephen K. Lambright, vice president and group executive of St. Louis-based Anheuser-Busch Cos. “All we’re asking is fair treatment for beer drinkers.”

Skeptics, however, wonder if that is what the beer makers are really after. “The people who are the most sensitive to beer price increases are teen-agers,” said Roberta Clarke, chairman of the marketing department at Boston University.

“Of course, the beer makers will all say they don’t target teen-agers,” said Clarke, who has done marketing studies for two beer companies. “But any price increase would mostly affect those who are just entering the beer market.”

Industry executives strongly deny that allegation. “The average beer drinker is a male who is 24 to 49 years old,” said Jim Sanders, president of the Beer Institute. “We do not target young people.”

For the beer makers, the proposed excise tax could hardly come at a worse time. Beer sales are already flat.

What’s more, the alcoholic beverage giants are already conducting a multimillion dollar campaign in California to battle a proposed “nickel-a-drink” ballot initiative that would impose a steep new tax on everything from beer to wine to distilled spirits.

“It’s ironic that Congress long ago did away with the excise tax on country club dues,” said Lambright. “But we continue to stick it to the guy in the corner tavern every time he orders a beer.”