Estefan-Bacardi Link Protested

As fans waited to enter the San Diego Sports Arena for Wednesday’s concert featuring Gloria Estefan and the Miami Sound Machine, they could watch videotaped excerpts of her in performance on a large, portable screen erected in the parking lot.

This was a commercial rig provided by the Bacardi Imports company to promote its “Bacardi Breezers,” a cooler-type drink that uses distilled spirits as a base instead of wine.

Bacardi is sponsoring Estefan’s current “Into the Light” tour to the tune of $18 million.

Estefan, whose husband, Emilio, is a former employee of Bacardi, said she signed the deal in June in order to bring a don’t-drink-and-drive public-service message to her young fans. The video features Estefan in a brief spot delivering that sobering message.

But members of the Coalition for Sensible Advertising and Family Education were on hand Wednesday to protest the Bacardi-Estefan deal. They say it contradicts the message Estefan makes on posters she did for the U.S. Office of Substance Abuse Prevention.

Coalition members engaged in verbal confrontations with representatives of Bacardi, who were there to supervise a promotion that included tables where concertgoers could sample the Breezers.