Keeping the world safe for beer: David Rehr has made the NBWA a political force in Washington - National Beer Wholesalers Association - Interview

Modern Brewery Age, Sept 9, 2002 by David K. Rehr

With the popular back-lash against CEOs and bosses, it's a pretty good time to bring it up.

Exactly. We're going to hear a lot about how corporate chieftains are greedy and want to kill their people. A lot of that rhetoric. Breaux has been pretty good with us, but we will fight him at every turn, because we don't want him to get any traction.

Can there be a compromise on ergonomics?

Probably not Nothing that would be acceptable to us would be acceptable to labor. What they want would destroy the profitability of the beer industry today.

I don't think labor wants nuts and bolts rules by which people would live. They see this as giving them a strategy for litigation. They will use this as a lever in collective bargaining, primarily against larger businesses.

You mentioned malternative advertising. This is a new arena for NBWA to enter....

It's essentially beer advertising with liquor labels. The claim is that this advertising induces young people to consume alcohol. Center of Science in the Public Interest had asked the FTC to investigate this, but FTC said there was no merit. But they are keeping after it.

Do you think malternatives could open some doors for spirits?

I think malternatives make things a whole lot more complicated. A lot of these malternatives provide really good margins for beer wholesalers. But I worry that these give liquor companies a foothold. They may think this gives them license to advertise on the networks. We support commercial free speech, but when they are making their case, we don't want them to say, "We should be able to advertise, because beer advertises." That implies that liquor equals beer. We do not believe that. Will they do that? I would if I was them. I always try to think of what our opponents would do. I put on my evil David Rehr twin hat, and think about how I could exploit our own position.

I think General Patton used to do something along those lines...

[laughs] There is actually a terrific book on the "twelve strategies of great generals." It has stuff on Stonewall Jackson, and Hannibal, Rommel and Patton. It goes through each of their strategies. What I got from it is that great generals do three things: deceive their opponents, keep their opponents off balance and never make a frontal assault. It is a great basic text for lobbying.

I notice that NBWA has entered the cultural sphere with a cooking with beer program...

We did a survey a few years ago. And I put on that evil David Rehr twin hat again. I asked myself "How does MADD get to us?" They change public opinion so legislators are pressured not to support us, because we are not part of the culture. If we take that as an assumption, what do we do to ensure that beer remains en integral part of America. We did a survey, and a public opinion poll. We found out that three of our strongest messages are:

(1) Making sure people know we are responsible. If they know that we are responsible, they are for us.

(2) Making sure people know about the economics of the industry. If they know about all the jobs, the taxes and community involvement, they are more pro-beer.