As a result of the growing acceptance of the social norms approach, academics and public health activists who prefer to focus on "binge drinking" and/or advance broad restrictive policies have responded with predictable criticisms. Indeed, in its front-page story about social norms, the NY Times reported that a "bitter debate about the difference between heavy drinking and youthful experimentation" has erupted. The Times, while noting "marked declines" in heavy drinking on some campuses that have adopted social norms, gave equal space to Harvard

USA Today, The New York Times and a handful of other newspapers recently featured stories about "social norms," a rational approach to campus drinking adopted by a handful of colleges about a decade ago. These programs educate students that contrary to popular belief, the majority of their peers do not drink heavily. When students understand this, the theory goes, they then drink to the more "moderate" norm. Evaluations from a number of campuses have reported declines in heavy drinking when these programs have been adopted in place of more typical scare campaigns about widespread, so-called "binge" drinking. Meanwhile, AB has just launched a national program that follows the social norms approach. Together with the National Association of State Universities and Land-Grant Colleges, AB rolled out an ad campaign at 210 colleges and asked its wholesalers to distribute the material to all colleges in their territories. Ads and posters provide information about college drinking in a context of "True or False?" trivia-type statements, and address "the misperception of some students who think they need to drink heavily to fit in." Included in the information: nearly 2/3 of college students consume less than 1 drink per day, and the statements: "College students are making responsible choices about drinking. Thanks for making intelligent choices about the norm."

The usual suspects cleaned up for 4 weeks around Jul 4th in supers, according to IRI. AB $$ sales up 5.4% for 4 weeks thru Jul 13. Gained 1.2 share of $$ to 41.7. Heineken and Modelo each gained 0.3 share of $$ with 13% and 6% gains respectively. Modelo at nearly 8 share of $$ nationally in supers for 4 weeks over Jul 4th. Miller share losses accelerated. Dropped 1.5 share to 17.7 for 4 weeks as $$ down 5.5%. Coors $$ stayed even, but it lost 0.2 share in period. Pabst $$ fell 5% and its share declined to 2.6 in period. That's less than 1/3 of Modelo.

Initial results of statewide efforts to reduce student alcohol abuse at the California State University

system (23 campuses, over 400,000 students) indicate some notable early successes in CSU

Several recent developments suggest a ratcheting up of fed meddling in alc bev biz. First: in handful of ongoing US District and Appeals Ct cases about direct shipments of wine to consumers some fed judges give short shrift, if any, to uniqueness of alc bevs. That includes tuff Tex decision we reported last issue that opened Tex to direct sales. Second: early-Jul Fed Trade Commission (FTC) staff report heartily endorsed direct shipments. Touted benefits of convenience, increased choice, lower consumer prices. Pooh-poohed arguments that direct sales attract underage buyers and make it hard to collect tax. FTC staff didn