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[Lucky Forward]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17862137/

A booze buzz for teenyboppers?

Anheuser-Busch product so adorable it draws fire from alcohol abuse camp

With prom season and all its attendant hazards around the corner, some law enforcers and health advocates are adding one more cause for parents to worry — a new alcoholic beverage called Spykes that is sized, flavored and priced in a way that critics say is aimed at teens.

Spykes, made by Anheuser-Busch, is a malt beverage with 12 percent alcohol content — about the same as wine. It comes in mango, lime, melon and chocolate flavors and is infused with caffeine as well as the herbs ginseng and guarana. Sold in 2-ounce bottles that go for 75 cents to a dollar apiece, Spykes “gives kick to your beer, flavor to your drink, and is a perfect shot,” according to the promotional Web site, www.spykeme.com.

It’s also cute — about the size of a nail polish bottle — so it can easily slip into the tiniest clutch purse or tuxedo pocket.

“It’s the perfect drink for a child,” lamented Judi Vining, coordinator of the Coalition to Prevent Underage Drinking in Long Beach, N.Y. She has started a campaign to alert parents and law enforcers in her area, and persuade retailers not to carry the product.

“Prom season and graduation season are coming up,” said Vining, who notes how easy it would be to conceal Spykes. “It’s scary. We don’t want to see people die.”

Anheuser-Busch rejects the criticism, saying Spykes is merely its response to “contemporary adult consumers” who it says are “looking for innovative alcohol beverages to match their active lifestyles.” The company’s communications office said no one was available to be interviewed but supplied written comments attributed to vice president of consumer affairs, John Kaestner.

Anheuser-Busch notes that Spykes is clearly marked as containing alcohol. The company also cites its contribution of more than $500 million dollars to programs for preventing alcohol abuse, including underage drinking, since 1982.

“That said, the way to prevent underage drinking is not by limiting product choices for adults,” the company statement said. “Rather, the solution is to prevent youth access to alcohol by training retailers to properly check IDs, supporting law enforcement officials in enforcing underage-drinking laws, and encouraging parents to set rules and consequences for their sons and daughters.”

That argument has done nothing to cool the anger over the introduction of Spykes bubbling away on an Internet mail list for professionals in the drug and alcohol abuse field. Many of these people were already concerned about the impact of alcohol-energy drink blends on teen drinking. But Spykes' size, coloring and exotic flavors make it singularly offensive to them.

“Introducing these products when our country is already so awash in underage and destructive drinking can be considered reckless at best,” wrote a contributor who identified himself as Alan Markwood, prevention projects coordinator at Chestnut Health Systems in Bloomington, Ill. “Hard to imagine the alcohol execs are really that out of touch with the damage they are doing by introducing products like this.”

Law enforcers also are warning of the potential for youth abuse of the product.

“These new products appear to be marketed for young people,” warns a bulletin on Spykes issued in February by the Michigan State Police Tri-County Narcotics Team. It puts officers on alert that Spykes “could/will be easily overlooked by patrol officers, especially in a woman’s purse.”

A blog published by the Oregon Partnership, a non-profit for drug and alcohol awareness, calls on consumers to write Anheuser-Busch in protest.

Flavoring your beer with mango, melon, lime, or chocolate? No. I don't see anyone other than teen-age girls buying this.

 

[Escape Goat]

If teens are drinking they wont be drinking this shit. Chances are they're already doing jaeger bombs and shots of hot damn 100.

 

[Mute]

Flavoring your beer with mango, melon, lime, or chocolate? No. I don't see anyone other than teen-age girls buying this.

Are you kidding me? Have you ever heard of Smirnoff Ice?

Teens have been getting ****ed up forever. Some new bitch drink won't create an influx of teenage alcoholics. Jebus..
From the title of the article I thought the author was Peggy Hill. What a mouth load of crap.

 

[Lucky Forward]

Are you kidding me? Have you ever heard of Smirnoff Ice?

Ummm...no. I'm just a beer and wine kind of guy. And I don't want mango in my beer.

 

[Mute]

Ummm...no. I'm just a beer and wine kind of guy. And I don't want mango in my beer.

I'm just saying, there are plenty of flavored drinks already. It just seems like every time some company releases flavored cigarettes or alcohol everyone throws a fit.

 

[Brian Fellows]

If teens are drinking they wont be drinking this shit. Chances are they're already doing jaeger bombs and shots of hot damn 100.

Yeah pretty much. This malt shit usually gives you a ****ing stomach ache long before you drink enough to actually get drunk. Or maybe that just me.

 

[demon]

Are you kidding me? Have you ever heard of Smirnoff Ice?

Teens have been getting ****ed up forever. Some new bitch drink won't create an influx of teenage alcoholics. Jebus..
From the title of the article I thought the author was Peggy Hill. What a mouth load of crap.

Seriously. With beer and cheap liquor practically flowing freely through teenage parties and whatnot, what the hell's the big deal about some new chick drink on the market? Oh dears, teenagers might start drinking!

 

[newsguy]

If that picture were larger it would be the ultimate photoshop material. The lady's tongue and replacing the sp with a d.

 

[Eminem]

If teens are drinking they wont be drinking this shit. Chances are they're already doing jaeger bombs and shots of hot damn 100.

Hahaha no shit. I don't remember going to a party in high school where people weren't drinking way too much hard alcohol because they're young and stupid.

 

[fatigues_gasolini]

i started my drinking career with smirnoff ice. Man i was dumb then. once drank 15 of them at a new years party and wasnt even messed up. luckily i moved to beer and havent looked back.

 

[Great Rumbler]

Teens have been getting ****ed up forever. Some new bitch drink won't create an influx of teenage alcoholics. Jebus..

And that pretty much ends the thread.

 

[Escape Goat]

i got drunk off strawberry daquiris :lol moved to rum and then vodka.


now i drink Blue moon and bacardi razz.

 

[Brian Fellows]

i got drunk off strawberry daquiris :lol moved to rum and then vodka.


now i drink Blue moon and bacardi razz.

I started off with those Jack Daniels wine coolers. Mostly Wildberry Jack. But having to drink a gallon of the shit to get drunk and knowing that it was almost guaranteed I was gonna puke at some point during the night forced me to the hard stuff.

 

[JoshuaJSlone]

“It’s the perfect drink for a child,” lamented Judi Vining

Jesus, Judi, you sound like a commercial for the stuff.

 

[tedtropy]

Any guy would feel embarrassed to drink booze from something that looked like that. Besides, high schoolers are too busy buying pot from their locker buddies to care about something like this.

 

[Like the hat?]

the only thing worth drinking is Stroh's

 

[Drensch]

This makes it easier on where to put the Rohyphnol.

 

[Zio]

:lol

teeny bopper



google it, that's what i first thought of when reading the title.

 

[Casual Gamera]

Urgh, kids have it so easy these days. First time I got puking drunk was thanks to this!

 

[Bad_Boy]

spykes: booze buzz for teenyboppers... heh. I feel like I just walked into a 'The Warriors' appreciation thread.