Restraint Sought on Look-Alike Products : Marketing: Drug czar seeks to restrict goods that children might see as glamorizing alcohol and tobacco.

The nation’s drug czar will announce in Washington today an “ethics in marketing” initiative to discourage what he sees as the recent proliferation of products that glamorize drug and alcohol use among children.

As part of the initiative, drug czar Lee Brown will meet with representatives of consumer organizations and industry to develop voluntary guidelines that would restrict the sale of these look-alike products, such as bubble gum shredded like chewing tobacco or juice drinks sold in flasks, an aide to Brown said.

“The packaging and marketing of legal products that are designed to resemble products that are illegal for youth undermines all of our efforts to teach children right from wrong,” Brown said Tuesday.

Reaching an agreement on voluntary standards may not be easy. One manufacturer, the maker of Big League Chew, the shredded bubble gum, argues that there is no connection between the gum and tobacco use. The company, Amurol Products, a unit of Wm. Wrigley Jr. Co., says Big League Chew is a “healthy alternative” to chewing tobacco, which can cause cancer.

“This product has been sold at Little League parks for 15 years,” said Gary A. Schuetz, marketing vice president for Amurol. “It’s a fun product, and kids know it’s a fun product.”

Meanwhile, representatives of consumer groups, while praising Brown’s campaign as an important first step, were disappointed that it did not include a look at how alcohol and tobacco are marketed.

“I’d rather see people focus on Joe Camel and the youthful looking appearance of people in alcohol ads,” said Glenn Levant, executive director of the DARE anti-drug abuse program.

Brown’s announcement will come at press conference during which Royal Crown Cola Co. will unveil a new label design for its draft cola. The company has come under fire for using amber, long-necked bottles and for displaying the word “draft” prominently on the label. As previously reported, RC will de-emphasize the word draft, but continue to use the long-necked bottle.

In making the label change, RC emerges as a corporate good guy, blunting the impact of the free, but negative, publicity it has received for its new soda, being marketing on a low budget.

RC has denied any connection between its draft cola and beer. Press materials for the product, however, say the the package “elicits all the visual imagery of premium beer.”

RC isn’t the only company making changes. In response to scattered protests around the country, Everfresh Beverages Inc. of Chicago is in the process of redesigning a juice container shaped like a flask. The company in the last few weeks has pulled in-store advertising that urged consumers to “ask for the flask.”