Brewer Faces Boycott Over Marketing of Potent Malt Liquor

The potent malt liquor has yet to hit the market shelves, but already it’s raising a furor throughout the country.

A national boycott of G. Heileman Brewing Co. products is being organized in at least six major U.S. cities. But so far, the troubled brewer isn’t budging from its plans to target its new high-alcohol malt liquor toward blacks--and to name it PowerMaster.

Meanwhile, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms sent the financially ailing company a letter Friday, requiring it to rename the malt liquor. Failure to comply could prompt the bureau to kill the brew, which has yet to be introduced, by rescinding its labeling permit.

At the same time, the Washington-based consumer group Center for Science in the Public Interest said it plans to ask the bureau today to consider changing federal guidelines that permit higher alcohol content in malt liquor than in beer.

Two pastors from inner-city Chicago say they plan to force the issue Wednesday by camping out at Heileman’s corporate headquarters in LaCrosse, Wis., until officials there agree to discuss killing the product.

PowerMaster--made by the same firm that manufactures Colt 45 malt liquor--is scheduled for national introduction in July. It will have a 31% higher alcohol content than many malt liquors.

The company had planned billboards featuring a black man hoisting a bottle and the slogan “Bold not harsh.” But recent media reports of the marketing plans have led to loud criticism from ethnic and consumer groups. The company will not say whether the billboard campaign is still in the offing.

At issue is growing resentment by blacks and other minorities who feel that they are being unfairly targeted--if not exploited--by makers of beer, liquor and tobacco products. Many of the targeted minorities contend that they are suffering a disproportionate number of health problems and financial hardships from their costly use of the products.

Heileman officials declined to respond to questions. Hugh Nelson, the firm’s marketing director, would only read this statement: “PowerMaster is an upscale malt beverage which will be marketed on the basis of its superior smooth taste, not alcoholic content.”

For years, makers of various malt liquors have tried to attract lower-income blacks and Latinos with suggestions of machismo and sexuality in their ads.

Tobacco companies--facing flat domestic sales--have been just as eager to tap the minority market. Last year, Uptown, a cigarette that R. J. Reynolds planned to target at blacks, was killed before its introduction because of angry protest.

Once again, critics are speaking out. Federal law prohibits beer makers from advertising the alcoholic content of their brews. To get across the image of a more potent mix, makers of malt liquor have instead relied on flashy names like Colt 45, King Cobra, Midnight Dragon--and now PowerMaster.

“I think this is the beer industry’s answer to Uptown,” said Rev. Michael Pfleger, pastor at St. Sabina Church in Chicago. “When you’re targeting African-Americans with the top two killers in America, it is no longer good business. It is genocide.”

As a result, Pfleger has helped arrange boycotts of PowerMaster--and of the stores that plan to carry it--in New York, Chicago, Detroit, Philadelphia, New Orleans and Oakland. No boycott has been organized in the Los Angeles area.

Pfleger said he has tried to contact Heileman officials for days, but they have not responded. So he and an associate will fly to Wisconsin on Wednesday and remain at the company’s headquarters until executives meet with them.

In Detroit, inner-city grocery store owners are being asked not to stock PowerMaster. Some already have posted signs that say, “We will not sell PowerMaster.”

“We know they’re targeting the black community, and we’re sick of it,” said Deborah Fair, president of the Michigan Black Alcoholism Council, which is providing the signs. “This is a drug, and we’re calling them drug dealers.”

Heileman officials have 10 days to respond to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms’ letter. It asks the brewer to remove the word “power” from its name. “Power connotes strength,” said Dorothy Koester, public affairs specialist at the bureau. “That’s just another way of saying high alcohol content.”

Ironically, Heileman’s move comes at a time when most Americans are drinking beer with less alcohol--and fewer calories, said Gary Hemphill, editor of Cleveland-based Beverage Industry magazine. “They have to decide if all this adverse publicity is worth it in a category that, in general, is not going the same direction as the rest of the industry.”

A top New York public relations specialist suggested that Heileman should kill the brand immediately.

“It’s a tremendous mistake,” said Howard J. Rubenstein. “This (furor) could overlap into some of their other products. The sooner they get out of it, the better.”