Latino Youths’ Drinking Targeted

With the help of sports stars and T-shirts, the liquor industry Wednesday launched a Spanish-language video program to discourage underage drinking in the Latino community, earning the endorsement of local officials and the skepticism of public interest groups.

“Sin Rodeos,” a Spanish version of a 3-year-old English-language program called “Ready or Not,” is aimed at the parents of 10- to 14-year-olds. The videos, which will be available without charge at Blockbuster Video outlets and in Los Angeles public and Roman Catholic schools, discuss various ways in which parents can approach their children about the topic of drinking.

“Sin Rodeos” (an idiom that could be translated as “straight talk”) is the latest effort of the Century Council, a distiller-funded nonprofit organization that in the past seven years has poured $90 million into campaigns against drunk driving and underage drinking.

Among those supporting the video program are Mayor Richard Riordan, U.S. Rep. Xavier Becerra (D-Los Angeles), the Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles, the Los Angeles Unified School District and the Boys and Girls Clubs of America.

But some who work on substance abuse issues are not so impressed.

“What we’ve seen is a double message being put out by the alcohol industry,” said Eduardo Hernandez, project director of a statewide network of substance abuse prevention organizations called the CalPartners Coalition. “On the one hand we’re bombarded by repeated messages of ‘Drink my product, and if you drink my product you will be popular, slender, whatever.’ On the other hand you see these smaller campaigns in which the alcohol industry is trying to create a good-guy image.

“I don’t think these programs have much effect, and I think they’re more of a public relations campaign,” he said.

“It’s time for the alcohol industry to be responsible about its marketing, to quit targeting Latinos, youth and communities of color in general with numerous commercials that make alcohol seem appealing.”

Those leaving the Hollywood news conference about the “Sin Rodeos” program didn’t have to drive far to find an example of that targeting: Not far away, a billboard advertising beer featured two attractive young Latinas.

Gabriela Saenz Torres, director of ethnic programs for the Century Council, said her organization’s efforts were independent of the liquor companies that fund it.

She pointed to the support of youth groups as evidence that the council is doing something “that is not going to solve the problems but will get us one step closer, give us one more tool to use in the fight against underage drinking and drunk driving.”

She added that “it’s the responsibility of the parents and adults who come in contact with the kids to educate them about the dangers of alcohol abuse, about the fact that it’s illegal for them to drink before the age of 21. It’s the parents who build all those things in children.”

That emphasis on individual responsibility is a favorite theme of the council’s, said George Hacker, director of the Alcohol Policies Project at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, a Washington-based health education and advocacy group.

“What they’ve done with their money, and very skillfully, is narrow the agenda to lead efforts in one direction,” he said.

“And the direction is usually focused on the individual who has the problem rather than policy that would change everyone’s behavior.”

By involving local politicians and athletic stars in their campaigns, the council is “buying innocence by association,” Hacker said.

Former major league baseball player Dave Winfield, a member of the council’s national advisory board, was at the news conference, along with Becerra and L.A. Galaxy soccer players Mauricio Cienfuegos and Martin Machon.

“Videos, educational material may not be the only answer,” Becerra said in an interview.

“But it’s certainly more than what we had before, and I’m not going to knock anything that gets us one step closer. The fact the Century Council has done this and other things in the past has to be applauded.”