American Businessmen's Research Foundation has pointed out, the liquor traffic is like a chain with various links ***

And it is this link of advertising that seems most vulnerable * * * Moreover, without advertising in the press, magazines, radio, movies, billboards, public carriers, etc., the liquor traffic would be tremendously curtailed.

*** Our best strategy is not to dissipate our strength in disconnected attacks on the liquor traffic by an overall attack on various links of the chain but to pick out the strongest link and with every cooperation we can muster across the Nation to concentrate our total effort against one link-and that link is advertising.

Therefore we ask you to put heart and, mind into this attack on liquor advertising and the more you study why we suggest this strategy the more you will realize the potential power of such an approach:

1. A knockout blow on liquor advertising will endanger the entire liquor traffic;

2. A concentrated cooperative effort on our part will make for strength that will enable us to form a national strategy by which we may proceed step by step in continued attack on beverage alcohol;

3. The influence of public opinion will rally to this very sensible objective; 4. By such an attack we will make it plain to the press, magazines, radio, and movies that we intend that these agencies shall be freed from the present stranglehold by which liquor advertising has trapped them;

5. This attack on advertising has great educational values, for in an approach like this it raises every sort of social question about the beverage alcohol problem; 6. It affords a real channel through which the motivation of spiritual values may be made effective.

American Businessmen's Research Foundation:

Whatever the essential elements in the solution to our liquor problem, no method of solution can succeed without legal power to curb all alcoholic beverage propaganda and advertising.

In commenting on an identical bill introduced some years ago by the late Senator Capper, Dr. Clinton N. Howard, executive superintendent, International Reform Federation, stated:

It requires only one reading to learn that it is a prohibition bill pure and simple. It states what it wants, how to obtain it, and provides stringent penalties to insure its enforcement.

Quoting its first paragraph, it reads, "a bill to prohibit the transportation in interstate commerce of advertisements of alcoholic beverages, and for other purposes," the other purpose being their broadcasting over the radio. They correlate, and each are essential to the success of the other. It is prohibition, plus prohibition, plus prohibition.

On a similar bill, S. 1847, in 1950, Mr. Roy S. Nicholson, president of the General Conference of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America, wrote:

The entire denomination which I represent, with churches in most of the States, is unalterably opposed to the liquor industry and feels that anything which perpetuates it contributes to the decay of our highest and best values. The membership of the Wesleyan Methodist Church of America is solidly behind the effort to prohibit the advertising of alcoholic beverages in interstate com

merce.

And Bishop Wilber E. Hammaker, one of the outstanding leaders of the dry movement, in speaking in behalf of S. 1847 in 1950, stated:

Mr. Chairman, the continuing encroachments and ravages of beverage alcohol constitute a real menace to America. This danger rivals that implicit in the threats of communism and war ***. This is an opportunity to hamper and hinder the deadly onslaughts of one of mankind's oldest and wiliest enemies.

In the past those who have sought passage of this bill have cloaked their real purposes, and we presume they will do so now, with a smokescreen of unreasoned objections to the character, volume, content, and effect of distilled spirits advertising.

Logical analysis of these charges shows that they are so remote from the truth as to be ludicrous. During previous hearings these charges have become well known. On the assumption that they again will be made, we state them and we will immediately demonstrate how far they range from the actual truth:

1. That the distilled-spirits industry spends an abnormal and excessive amount of money to advertise its product.

2. That the result of these expenditures has been to create an alarming increase in the consumption of distilled spirits and that we Americans are becoming a nation of heavy drinkers.

3. That the hard-liquor industry conducts an insidious campaign of advertising to attract the special attention of young people with the aim of converting them to the use of its products.

4. That distilled-spirits advertising resorts to devious and ingenious devices to broaden the market for its products.

5. That hard-liquor advertising dominates the attention of the American public.

6. That the distilled-spirits industry has no sense of social responsibility.

We answer all of these questions with a categorical denial and we propose to document these answers primarily with official statistics from such sources as the Department of Commerce, the Treasury Department, Bureau of Census, Publishers' Information Bureau, Dr. Starch's continuing study of magazine readership, and with specific exhibits of advertising which have a bearing on the points under discussion.

1. Question. Is it true that the distilled spirits industry is spending an abnormal and excessive amount of money to advertise its products?

Answer. No!

The alcoholic beverage industry spends a lower percentage to sales for advertising than any other major industry with only one exception, the food industry. The following table, based on a report compiled from figures of the Department of Commerce and the Magazine Advertising Bureau, shows the percentage of advertising to sales for a list of major American industries selling to consumers. The figure for the alcoholic beverage industry of 0.92 is obviously not an abnormal or excessive use of money.

Percentage of advertising expenditures to sales: Alcoholic beverages versus other leading industries. Here are the figures:

Sources: Sales from Department of Commerce, advertising expenditures from Magazine Advertising Bureau.

2. Question. Is it true that the result of this advertising is to cause an alarming increase in the consumption of distilled spirits and that we Americans are becoming a Nation of heavy drinkers?

Answer. No!

One hundred years ago when there was no advertising, the per capita consumption was 2.24 gallons as against 1954 when it was 1.18 gallons. The table on page 256 demonstrates that there is no basic for the contention that advertising is turning us into a nation of heavy drinkers.

No. 3: Question. Is it true that the hard liquor industry conducts an insidious campaign of advertising to attract the special attention of young people with the aim of converting them to the use of its products?

Answer. No!

The facts speak for themselves. In the 10-year period between 1946 and 1955, some 21 million young people passed their 21st birthday. This is approximately 20 percent of the total population 21 years old or over. If, as alleged, there has been a concerted effort to convert this younger group in recent years, the results should be reflected in consumption figures, but per capita consumption has declined from 1.65 gallons in 1946 to 1.18 in 1954, the latest year for which figures are available.

I would like to further substantiate at this point from an article which I took from the February 10 issue of Printers' Ink, an article entitled "1954 Retail Sales Up 32 Percent Over 1948." It goes on to say that the Census Bureau is issuing its first summary of retail sales since 1948.

Now let us see what we find. We find that population has increased from 148 million in 1948 to 162 million in 1954 or 10 percent. National income increased 30 percent and retail sales were up $173 million or 32 percent, but not distilled spirits sales. They moved up from 171 million in 1948 to 189 million in 1954, or exactly 10 percent and exactly in proportion to the increase of population and 22 percent behind the movement upward of national retail sales.

Question 4. Is there any clear cut relationship between the volume of advertising done and the volume of distilled spirits sold? Answer. No!

The appended chart demonstrates conclusively that there is a much closer relationship between national income and total consumption than between advertising volume and total consumption.

This is an important point because we are convinced that the good people who advocate the passage of this bill seem to regard it as a means to an end. Admittedly opposed to the manufacture and sale of alcoholic beverages, their stated hope is that the elimination of advertising for such beverages will result in reduced use of these beverages. There is no basis for such an assumption.

Again we state that all of the statistical information which can be developed indicates that the consumption of hard liquor relates more to other factors such as national income and national temperament, than to the volume of distilled spirits advertising as it is conducted under today's conditions.

The chart is there for you gentlemen to peruse at your leisure. (The chart referred to follows:)

310

300

290

280

270

CONSUMPTION OF DISTILLED SPIRITS COMPARED WITH NATIONAL INCOME
AND ADVERTISING EXPENDITURES

260

250

240

230

220

210

200

190

180

170

160

150

140

130

120

Consumption of Distilled Spirits

Advertising of Distilled Spirits
(newspapers and magazines)

Total National Income

Mr. BONDURANT. The fifth question. Does the distilled spirits industry resort to devious and ingenious devices to broaden the market for its products?

Answer. No.

People who do not understand advertising imply to it magic powers which it does not have. It seems to be the general impression of the people who advocate the passage of bills such as this that the industry manages somehow to be more adroit and seductive than other advertisers, and that the underlying motive of most of its advertising is to induce nondrinkers to use alcoholic beverages and to cause present drinkers to drink more.

Let us test this thesis and look at an exhibit of recent advertisements clipped from magazines for the top-selling brands of liquor in the American market.

They are all photostated for you, gentlemen.

par

These advertisements unquestionably are addressed to users and nonusers of alcoholic beverages, and the effort is to establish the ticular brand advertised as better than others. They contain such statements as:

In 87 lands*** the best in the house.

For men among men, here is a whisky among whiskies-Imperial.

There is one whisky that stands alone-Old Grand Dad.

No other whisky can match the flavor of Four Roses.

This is the whisky that made Kentucky whiskies famous.

Wherever fine whisky is enjoyed the call is for Old Sunny Brook.

The greatest name in bourbon.

Calvert satisfies like no other whisky.

The standard by which the finest American whisky is judged.
There is nothing better on the market.

If you can find a better bourbon *** buy it.

Also in this exhibit, you will see advertisements which make no direct comparison but simply make statements implying quality in their own products, such as:

Time to say Corby's.

If you like fine things-PM is for you.
Known by the company it keeps.

The golden age of elegance in whisky.

We realize that the foregoing advertisements are anathema to the opponents of liquor in any form. But, this is hardly the question. The question is, do they represent a flagrant violation of good taste or good manners? Are they of a type calculated to seduce the youth of the Nation? Are they so offensive that a major American industry should be deprived of the use of the mails and other channels of communication for the purpose of advertising its products? It is hard to believe that unbiased people can reach such a conclusion.

We again would like to mention an interesting point concerning the relationship between "glamor" or "artifice" in liquor advertising as opposed to the desires and customs of a community in relation to consumption.

The State of Pennsylvania which has no advertising regulations beyond those of the ATTD and where advertisements such as we have shown here can be run freely, has a per capita consumption of 0.94 gallon, 22 percent under the national average.

The neighboring State of Virginia which has removed all "glamor" or "artifice" from its local newspaper advertising and prohibits by