The cooler illusion - wine, beer, and liquor coolers

Vibrant Life, July-August, 1990 by Ann Montgomery

Tipsy teens. While it's clear that millions of underage kids are drinking alcohol regularly, no one knows exactly what they're drinking. Last year, a national survey of 500,000 elementary school children focused attention--for the first time--on attitudes and perceptions commonly held about wine coolers. The study found that:

* Only 21 percent of fourth to sixth graders think of wine coolers as a drug.

* Twenty-six percent of fourth graders think their peers have tried wine coolers. By sixth grade, the percentage rises to 42 percent. Among seventh to twelfth graders, 80 percent think their peers have tried wine coolers.

* The belief among children that drinking alcohol every day "could cause great harm" decreases with each succeeding grade, from 26 percent in the fourth grade to 17 percent by the sixth grade.

Meanwhile, some drug treatment centers are already worried. Harry Kressler, director of Matrix Community Services, an organization that runs therapeutic community programs for teens in Tucson, Arizona, says girls are drawn to coolers. "They like the taste," he says. "The word cooler evokes a refreshing, light beverage that's pleasant, airy, and stimulating. That's ironic, because alcohol is a central nervous system depressant."

Kressler thinks that in the future, more teens will buy coolers "as an alternative to beer" because there are "so many ads pushing them." Asked if he thought coolers are creating a new wave of alcohol abuse problems, Kressler replied, "The problem--teenage alcoholism--is already there. coolers are just another choice of packaging."

Diane Purcell, of Chicago's Parkside Medical Services, part of a large chain of alcoholism treatment centers, thinks that one reason coolers are a hazard for kids is because "they're so easy to drink. You can go from lemonade to a lemon cooler in one easy step. You don't have to acquire a taste for alcohol."

Purcell thinks that cooler ads are powerfully appealing to teens. (Most cooler advertising is on television). The ads "usually feature good-looking young guys and girls having a great time," she notes. "The message is that you can't have fun at a party unless you're drinking coolers."

Some parents, too, are worried about coolers. "I wasn't even aware these things were available until I found out my son started drinking them when he was 15," says Carl Fisher, of Arlington, Virginia. "But I really got angry when I found my 5-year-old listening to a cooler ad on a teenybopper radio station. Why is it legal to market this stuff to kids?"

The net results of all this marketing guile haven't been measured yet. Coolers are a comparatively new product (the first product hit the market in 1981), and there is not much data on who's drinking them and in what quantities. So far, the federal government has done little to investigate the impact of the cooler phenomenon on Americans' drinking problems--let alone warn consumers that coolers are as potent as beer, wine, or mixed drinks. But there is growing concern that the sweet, spiked sodas are being widely consumed by young people.