Liquor, Beer Ads Aimed at Youths Attacked : Health: The surgeon general asks the alcohol industry to halt the practice. She says the spots ignore the realities of life.

Surgeon General Antonia Coello Novello called on the alcohol industry Monday to halt advertising that targets young people, particularly ads that associate drinking with sex appeal, sports activities and other glamorous themes.

“The ads sell an escape from reality--a venture into fantasy,” Novello said at a press conference. “They make drinking look like the key to fun and a wonderful and carefree lifestyle . . . . The ads have youth believing that--instead of getting up early, exercising, going to school, playing a sport or learning to be a team player--all they have to do to fit in is learn to drink the right alcoholic beverage.”

The surgeon general said she is especially concerned about liquor, wine and beer ads that feature “certain lifestyle appeals, sexual appeal, sports appeal or risky activities” or that use cartoon characters or youth slang.

She noted that alcohol advertising “never communicates the true consequences of drinking or its health risks,” including automobile accidents, drownings, falls, fires, child abuse and homicides. Novello cited a 1990 California study, which found that 41% of drowning deaths were alcohol-associated, and a 1983 National Transportation Safety Board study, which estimated that alcohol was involved in 69% of boat-related drownings.

Alcohol industry executives insisted Monday that they strongly oppose alcohol consumption by individuals younger than 21 but said that banning advertising would not solve the problem of underage drinking.

“We will be working cooperatively with the surgeon general’s office on effective programs” to reduce the problem, said Janet Flynn, speaking for the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States.

Jeff Becker, a spokesman for the Beer Institute, insisted that the beer industry “does not advertise to customers who cannot, by law, consume their products” and attacked Novello for failing to work with the industry before going public with her comments.

“Wouldn’t it have been nice if months and months ago the surgeon general would have attempted to sit down with industry to discuss her concerns?” he said. “That was unfortunate. But, at the same time, we look forward to trying to work with her to decrease and ultimately eliminate the underage use of our product.”

Novello made her comments as she released the third in a series of reports on youth and alcohol.

The longer young people delay drinking for the first time, “the fewer problems with alcohol and other drugs they will have in their lives,” she said. She noted that the law setting the minimum legal drinking age at 21 has “saved the lives of about a thousand young people between the ages of 16 and 20 every year since it was enacted in 1984.”

The Coalition on Alcohol Advertising and Family Education praised Novello for her public stance but criticized her for not going further.

The coalition, which includes such groups as the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Assn. and the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, called on Congress to approve legislation that would require health warning messages in alcohol advertising.

“The alcohol industry’s time is up,” said Christine Lubinski of the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence, another coalition participant. “It’s time now for Congress to act . . . .”

Rep. Joseph Kennedy (D-Mass.), author of the legislation, predicted that the bill would face obstacles in Congress because “alcohol is not viewed as a drug by the generation of Americans that today control the decision-making process in our country.”