Pennsylvania: Public transit to display alcohol ads

If using public transit in an era of fare increases, service cuts and overcrowded vehicles isn't enough to drive a rider to drink, soon there will be another nudge in that direction.

The Port Authority's new advertising policy, approved by a board committee on Wednesday, bans political ads, religious ads, tobacco ads and anything that depicts pornography or violence. It does not ban alcohol advertising, which is likely to start showing up soon on a bus or trolley near you.

The policy follows a five-year court battle over whether the authority could refuse to post ads on buses informing felons of their right to vote. A federal appeals court ruled it could not because it had previously allowed ads educating the public about other legal rights.

Authority general counsel Michael Cetra said the four-page policy is intended to provide clearer guidelines as to what is acceptable. The former policy, adopted in 1998, was only one paragraph, he said.
Publicity about the court case generated inquiries from would-be advertisers, including some who want to market alcohol, authority spokesman Jim Ritchie said.

"By expanding the pool of potential advertisers ... we likely will see ad income increase to some degree," authority CEO Steve Bland said. Currently, ad revenue accounts for about $1 million of the agency's $74 million in annual operating income.

Also Wednesday, a board committee reluctantly took the next step toward a July fare increase and a record 35 percent cut in transit service scheduled for September. The approval sends the matter to the full board for ratification on April 27.

Declining state aid and rising health care, pension and fuel costs have the authority facing a projected $64 million deficit for 2012-13. Authority officials, regional business and labor leaders and local government officials have urged Gov. Tom Corbett and the Legislature to fix a transportation funding shortfall that also is affecting Pennsylvania's roads and bridges, but they have not acted.

"This is not something that any of us want to do," said Wendy Stern, the authority's assistant general manager for planning and development, who gave a presentation on the impact of the service reductions.

Forty-six of the remaining 102 bus routes would be eliminated. Service would end at 10 p.m. on all but 13 bus and rail routes. Six suburban routes would be shortened. Some 400 to 500 drivers, mechanics and administrative staff would be laid off. The Collier bus garage would close.

The plan also calls for "devastating" reductions in ACCESS, the agency's nationally recognized paratransit service for the elderly and disabled that provides 6,000 daily rides, Ms. Stern said.

An estimated 1,800 users of the service in outlying parts of Allegheny County would be stranded, she said.
"We would be abandoning people who don't have choices," board member Guy Mattola said. "Allegheny County will take a big step back in providing services to our most vulnerable citizens."

Mr. Bland acknowledged that the authority, in addition to seeking a permanent state solution to its chronic funding problems, must wring concessions from union workers in ongoing contract talks. Mr. Corbett has said that has to happen before he'll consider additional funding.

The Zone 1 fare would rise by 25 cents to $2.50 on July 1; the Zone 2 fare would go up 50 cents to $3.75. While the fare increase is almost a certainty, the service cuts can be avoided if the state provides a funding solution, officials said.

"This puts in place a schedule that certainly can be undone," Mr. Bland said.

Source: Post Gazette

5 Wackiest Vodka Flavors of 2012

James Bond would never make his signature shaken martini with marshmallow-flavored vodka. But there's a growing trend among spirit consumers who don't share 007's passion for Vesper.

Vodka makers like Diageo (NYSE:DEO) know that many of their fans like booze with a little zing. That's why there's been an increase in creative vodka flavors. Since consumers favor vodkas with either a sweet or spicy edge, many of the wackiest new flavors follow suit. There also are some savory bottles of vodka on shelves.
CNBC recently compiled a list of some of the wackiest flavored vodkas on the planet.

Here's a look at five:
Marshmallow: Smirnoff
Chili Pepper: Absolut
Smoked Salmon: Alaska Distillery
Cookie Dough: Pinnacle Vodka
Scorpion: Skorppio Vodka
I promise that I didn't make up the last one.
You can check out a complete list of crazy vodka flavors at CNBC:
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47075311/

Source: Investor Place

Johnny Walker scotch wins infringement suit (Excerpt)

DIAGEO, the British-based maker of Johnnie Walker, received 120,000 yuan (US$19,046) compensation from two Chinese companies that used the Scotch whisky's name on their skin-care products, the Shanghai Intellectual Property Administration said yesterday.

Diageo brought the trademark-infringement suit to the Shanghai No. 2 Intermediate People's Court, saying two Chinese companies in neighboring Jiangsu Province used the name and pattern similar to Johnnie Walker's registered trademarks and seeking 500,000 yuan in compensation.

The defendants, Bishuang Biological Technology Co and Wuxi Yongru Biological Cosmetics Co, argued that their Johnnie Walker product name was registered under a different category from the whisky maker in 2007.

"Chinese customers will not be misled because our name was used on olive oil skin-care products," the defendants said.

Diageo argued that using the Johnny Walker name would mislead Chinese buyers to believe the cosmetics companies had something to do with the whisky maker.

The court said the issue came down to whether Johnnie Walker was a famous trademark deserving protection under the Chinese Trademark Law.

Over the past five years, Johnnie Walker has invested nearly 800 million yuan on advertising and promotion activities in China. The foreign firm also provided evidence including its latest market share to prove Johnnie Walker was a famous trademark.

Source: East Day

Drinking On The Job: Is 2012 The New 1966?

The TV show Mad Men has won fans for breathing life and a heavy whiff of bourbon into the fictional advertising world of 1960s New York. But surely no American company has such a liver-pickling culture in this day and age, right?

If you're unfamiliar with Mad Men, New York magazine has assembled a sampling of the show's drinking scenes.

And according to ABC's Alan Farnham, advertising firms are still at it or at least, they're making sure that their employees have free access to liquor and beer while they're at work. And the ad companies are not alone.

Farnham reports that the list of agencies that serve liquor on the premises include names such as BBDO, TBWA/Chiat/Day, Grey Group, and Mindshare. Two other standouts include J. Walter Thompson, which reportedly boasts a 50-foot bar, and Kirshenbaum, Bond, Senecal + Partners, which creates advertisements for Glenfiddich whisky and Hendricks gin, among other liquors.

Company representatives say that most of the imbibing takes place after the day's work is done. And others say the drinks can help take the sting out of workdays that can easily extend past 12 hours.
But another common theme is the idea that drinking on the job helps co-workers bond and it can also spark creative solutions. The ABC story was evidently inspired by a recent study titled "Uncorking The Muse: Alcohol Intoxication Facilitates Creative Problem Solving."

Here's part of the abstract for that study:
"Individuals were brought to a blood alcohol content of approximately .075, and, after reaching peak intoxication, completed a battery of [Remote Associates Test] items. Intoxicated individuals solved more RAT items, in less time, and were more likely to perceive their solutions as the result of a sudden insight."
And it's not just advertising companies that are providing more alcohol in the workplace out west, tech and startup companies are putting beer taps into their break rooms, as Bloomberg reported in a similar story last month.

The business news service reported that Yelp has installed "kegerators" to keep a ready supply of cold beer on-hand. But the consumer website's workers are monitored as they drink they must swipe their work ID on an iPad sensor to get a glassful. Other companies, such as Twitter, reportedly keep beer and wine in their break rooms.

One possible benefit to boozing on-site is that it might cut the chances that a worker will air the company's dirty laundry, spill the beans about a new idea or simply leave a top-secret new product on a bar stool, as an Apple employee did back in 2010, when he famously lost custody of a prototype iPhone 4.
Here are other reasons companies cite for providing booze at work, from ABC:
"Whether alcohol helps or hinders problem-solving, says professor Dalton Conley, dean for the social sciences at NYU, is a matter of degree: 'It's a fine line to walk.' If consumed in moderation, alcohol, he says, shuts off the self-censoring aspect of the brain."

In that light, it's not hard to imagine a sudden spike in activity for Human Resources departments, if more companies adopt an open-bottle policy.

But in terms of personal safety, it should also be noted that Conley isn't talking about drinking on the job when it comes to workers handling heavy machinery or tools he's thinking of people who wrangle computer mice, and maybe change the toner in their printer.

"In a knowledge economy, he says, productivity 'comes in fits and starts, not on an hourly basis,'" ABC quotes Conley.

As for the dangers of increased alcoholism rates among workers, the professor says the free access might help the companies "weed out" anyone who can't control their drinking.

That idea might strike an odd note to those who see alcohol not as a social lubricant but as a potential source of dire problems for both employees and their companies.

As NPR's Shots blog reported back in January, "binge drinking in America looks to be an even bigger problem than we thought," citing a national study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. And one detail of that study will come as no surprise to fans of Mad Men: "As was the case in the last survey, the well-heeled had the highest rate of binge drinking, at 20 percent."

That statistic could prompt a debate over cause-and-effect one that is better argued elsewhere. But it's a good time to note that despite its new fans in the business world, alcohol is also blamed for a host of social and health problems in the United States.

An article at the Mayo Clinic site gives a brief overview of alcohol's possible benefits when consumed strictly in moderation along with listing the possible (very) negative consequences of overindulging, which range from high blood pressure to certain types of cancer.

And for a broader, and more sobering, view of drinking and work, you can check out Dr. Joseph Nowinski's post for the Harvard Health Blog, in which he writes:

"Given that so many Americans have trouble with alcohol, we could use fewer opportunities to drink, not more of them. Relaxed corporate policies toward drinking on the job could nudge more employees into the almost alcoholic zone or beyond. When it comes to drinking and work, there should be a clear boundary between business and pleasure. To riff on the Anheuser Busch commercial, good things don't necessarily happen to those who don't wait."

Source: GPB News

Alcohol in the Workplace: Cool Trend or Risky Policy?

"They say a man's work is never done. They say you can't mix business with pleasure. They say that good things come to those who wait." -- Anheuser Busch Super Bowl 2012 commercial

The above were the opening lines in a Super Bowl ad that promoted a new product -- Bud Light Platinum -- that is being offered by Anheuser Busch. In the ad, a group of men and women (all 30-something) are seen in what is clearly an office environment. The opening scene, in fact, shows a man seated at a desk, head in hand and clearly fatigued. The message is unmistakable: You can mix business with pleasure, and why wait until after work to have that first drink?

Interestingly enough, Anheuser Busch may be merely capitalizing on what is already an emerging workplace trend that is worth looking at. Consider the following:

Yelp Inc's headquarters in San Francisco features a keg refrigerator that employees are free to use as much as they want. Yelp operates yelp.com, a social networking, user review, and local search web site that filed a $100 million IPO in November 2011. Eric Singley, director of Yelp consumer and mobile products, points to the fact that employees' use of the keg is monitored via an iPad app as a way of discouraging excessive use.

Lukas Biewald, CEO of CrowdFlower Inc, an employment company, justifies having a fridge full of beer by pointing out that the long hours put in by employees who work at companies like his means that social life and work life often overlap.

Twitter Inc. also stocks wine and beer in its office fridge (along with nonalcoholic drinks). "We treat employees as adults," says Jodi Olson, a spokeswoman for Twitter, "and they act accordingly."
EDPM, Inc is a company that specializes in providing drug testing and background check services. Its stated goal is "to assist clients in developing and maintaining their most valuable resources -- their employees." In commenting on the above trend on their corporate blog, EDPM pointed out that by following the Anheuser Busch suggestion and condoning drinking in the workplace (whether it is monitored or not), employers may be taking in some liability. "If an employee leaves work with alcohol in his/her system and gets into an accident, does the employer bear any responsibility?" they ask.

A Cool Trend?

Consistent with the above, Drs. Paul Roman and Terry Blum, writing for the National Institute of Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, report that the development of alcohol abuse prevention programs in U.S. workplaces has slowed considerably in recent years, despite the fact that such programs can be effective. They also cite statistics showing that about 8 percent of full-time employees self-report drinking five or more drinks on five or more occasions per month. It would not seem reasonable to assume that such drinking behavior would have no impact on employees' productivity.

A lack of policy, combined with the absence of serious alcohol prevention programs and/or a corporate policy of tolerance may in fact be a slippery slope rather than a perk for many employees. In one survey of 6,540 employees at 16 workplaces representing a range if industries, fully 23 percent of upper-level managers reported drinking during work hours in the prior month.[1]

All of the above raises the question: Is making alcohol available at the workplace justified by arguments such as long work hours, the blending of work and home life, or the expectation that employees will act responsibly? I would argue that it is not. Let me know if you disagree.

"Almost Alcoholic" and Corporate Policy

Until recently, medical and mental health professionals considered only two categories of drinking to be problematic. The first, "alcohol dependence," is what is commonly called alcoholism. The alcoholic must drink more or less continuously to maintain a level of alcohol in his or her body. If all the alcohol is metabolized, the alcoholic goes into withdrawal and experiences severe, even life-threatening, physical symptoms.

The second diagnostic category -- "alcohol abuse" -- is used when an individual is not yet physically dependent on alcohol but has nevertheless experienced one or more severe consequences directly attributable to drinking. Examples of such consequences would be an arrest for driving under the influence or domestic violence, a severe illness such as diabetes, or the loss of a job due to poor performance.
Men and women (and only those men and women) who meet the criteria for alcohol abuse or dependence have been considered (by professionals and insurers) to be eligible for treatment. However, this may be changing.

As it has been working toward the first revision of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM) in more than 15 years, the American Psychiatric Association has been taking new look at many diagnostic categories. Under consideration is the idea that some conditions might be better thought of as existing on a spectrum rather than in terms of discrete categories such as alcohol abuse and dependence. Dr. Robert Doyle and I are supportive of this approach, particularly as it pertains to drinking. To be specific, we have proposed that drinking be viewed in terms of the spectrum depicted below.

We believe that, as opposed to thinking that only those men and women whose drinking has progressed toward the far right of the drinking spectrum may need help, that in fact many people in the mid-range may also be suffering as a result of drinking. That suffering may include declining job performance and declining health that the individual does not yet recognize as being related to drinking.

Here are a few signs that an individual may have moved out of the normal social drinking part of the spectrum and into the almost alcoholic zone. Keep in mind that it is not only if a person drinks for these reasons, but also how often they do so that can determine how far into the almost alcoholic zone they have ventured.

You drink to relieve stress.
You drink alone.
You look forward to drinking
Your drinking may be related to one or more health problems
You drink to relieve boredom or loneliness.
You sometimes drive after drinking.
You drink to maintain a "buzz."
Your performance at work is not what it used to be.
You aren't comfortable in social situations without drinking.
You find that drinking helps you overcome your shyness.

The almost alcoholic zone is actually quite large. The people who occupy it are not alcoholics. Rather they are men and women whose drinking habits range from barely qualifying as almost alcoholics to those whose drinking borders on abuse. One thing we do know about them is that the more their drinking correlates with the above statements, the more likely they are to drift further into the almost alcoholic zone. I would ask you: Could offering alcoholic beverages at work promote movement into the almost alcoholic zone?

Research on treatment for drinking problems has advanced considerably in the past 15 years, thanks in part to funding for controlled clinical trials. That research has resulted in a number of strategies that individuals can use to either stop or reduce their drinking -- in other words, to "shift left" on the drinking spectrum. These methods are detailed in Almost Alcoholic: Is My (or My Loved One's) Drinking a Problem? Of significance is that they have proven effective not only for men and women who are alcohol dependent, but also for those who may be "almost alcoholic."

Source: Huff Post

Strong sales boost Heineken shares

Shares in Dutch brewer Heineken jumped after the company reported beer volume rose strongly in the first quarter, with robust growth in emerging markets and America more than compensating for contraction in western Europe.

But the company's first-quarter trading update reported earnings fell slightly compared with the previous year, as cost inflation, investments and impairments outweighed the rise in sales.

In a trading update, the world's third-largest brewer said beer volumes grew organically by 4.7 per cent, beating analysts' consensus of 1.7 per cent. Growth was high everywhere in the world except for western Europe, where volume was 1.2 per cent down.

Rene Hooft Graafland, chief financial officer, noted in a conference call that the first quarter was the least important in the year, contributing some 20 per cent of sales.

Heineken lost out this week to ABInBev in its efforts to purchase CND, the largest brewer in the Dominican Republic. But the company acquired breweries in Nigeria and Ethiopia in the last quarter of 2011, as well as the Galaxy Estate of pubs in Britain.

Heineken said consolidation costs from those acquisitions had helped keep earnings down in the first quarter of 2012. The consolidation costs of its acquisition of Haiti's national brewer in January would be charged in the second quarter.

Earnings were also hit by a 23m impairment in China due to the failure to sell a subsidiary there. Net profits rose 16 per cent year on year, to 175m.

Richard Withagen of SNS Securities, who upgraded the stock to "accumulate" earlier this year, said in a note that he was "especially positive about the resilience of the operations in central and eastern Europe and Africa and the momentum of the Heineken premium brand".

Sales of Heineken's namesake brand grew 8.7 per cent, while sales of its new Desperados tequila-flavoured beer were up 10 per cent.

Heineken reiterated its performance goals for the year, which include the first tranche of a ?500m cost savings programme to run through to 2015.

Shares were up 2.75 per cent to 43.48 in morning trading on the Amsterdam exchange, their highest level since the financial crisis in 2008.

Source: FT

Beam Releasing New Formulations For Wolfschmidt And Kamchatka

WSD has learned that Beam Global is switching Wolfschmidt and Kamchatka vodkas to "Vodka Liqueurs."
Using 10% sugar and 49% wine, this allows the products to sell at a lower price and may bring a new level of competition to the already competitive vodka category.

The new products are reportedly launching May 1.

"Beam's value-for-money vodkas are benefiting from updated packaging, as well as a new liquid formulation that delivers the same value and taste profile consumers of these products already love. Vodka is still the base, blended with a high-proof liqueur.

Beam is the market leader in liqueurs, and this vodka with premium liqueur formulation simply extends our leadership and expertise to enhance our value vodka brands, Kamchatka and Wolfschmidt.

Testing indicates consumers of these brands will respond favorably to the refreshed packaging. Given the high quality of the liquid in these brands, we do not expect the selling price of these products to materially change," Clarkson Hine, svp of corporate communications, told WSD.

Source: Wine & Spirits Daily

SABMiller gets a beer boost from emerging markets

Global brewer SABMiller reported a 3 percent rise in its underlying beer volumes in the first three months of 2012 as growth in the emerging markets of Latin America, Africa and Asia offset declines in Europe and North America.

The world's No.2 brewer and maker of Miller Lite, Castle and Peroni beers added on Thursday that beer volumes at its newly-acquired Foster's Australian business dipped 4 percent in the first three months of ownership in a tough domestic market.

Big brewers are relying on emerging markets growth and price rises to offset sluggish growth and tough competition in more mature markets. SABMiller has a higher proportion of profits from emerging markets than its key rivals at around 70 percent.

The 3-percent quarterly rise was just below an average forecast of 3.3 percent for fiscal fourth-quarter beer volumes and at the bottom end of a 3-4 percent range based on a Reuters survey of 10 brokers. This followed a 3 percent rise in the nine months of April-December 2011.

London-based SABMiller said its beer volumes for its full financial year through to end-March were up 3 percent, with price rises helping to push annual revenue up 7 percent. Overall trading was line with its own expectations, it added.

The brewer, which also makes Grolsch, Snow, Pilsner Urquell and Aquila beers said full-year underlying volumes rose 13 percent in Africa, 8 percent in Latin America, 4 percent in the Asia-Pacific and 2 percent in South Africa.

Europe remained weak with a 1 percent annual fall, and in the United States, where it operates through its MillerCoors joint venture, sales to retailers fell 2.4 percent.

On Wednesday, the world's third largest brewer Heineken reported a higher-than-expected 4.7 percent rise in its underlying first-quarter beer volumes sending its shares to a four-year higher, but higher costs saw profits decline slightly.

Global leader Anheuser-Busch InBev reports its first quarter earnings on April 30 and Carlsberg updates the market on May 9.

Source: Reuters