The Wall Street Journal reports on the beer industry’s attempts to target the Latino market, specifically the youth market, by bombarding them with ads and via donations to Latino non-profits dedicated to education. Overall ad spending in Latino advertising is increasing as well:

Last year, Anheuser-Busch Inc., the St. Louis brewer of Budweiser and Bud Light, created a new division dedicated to marketing to Hispanics and announced it would boost its 2006 ad spending in Hispanic media by two-thirds, to more than $60 million. SABMiller PLC’s Miller Brewing Co. signed a $100 million, three-year ad package with Spanish-language broadcaster Univision Communications Inc.

Beer’s relationship with Latino youth– the industry’s “community based marketing” efforts — sponsoring a young Latino’s education via a Latino non-profit is nothing new. Google the words “Anheuser” and “Hispanic Scholarship Fund”, for example, and you’ll find a evidence of a long-time relationship between this non-profit and the beermaker.

Is this ethical? Or is it the equivalent of placing cigarettes at a child’s eye-level so that the product is assimilated, “mamado” as they say in Spanish, at an early age?

In the WSJ article, AB counters:

“When it comes to preventing underage drinking, we should focus on restricting access, not censoring advertising,” Ms. Coulis says. Brewers say they finance ads promoting designated drivers and discouraging underage drinking. Anheuser is one of the largest corporate contributors to the Hispanic Scholarship Fund and a major donor to the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund, an advocacy group.

That’s a PR person response if I’ve ever heard one. What do you think? Is it ethical for companies — alcohol-related or not — to market to Latinos through “weak points” in the community, like lack of funds to support one’s education, for example?

Take into consideration that, like it or not, beer money is paying for the education of a lot of people.

Leave your comments and let’s debate.

Full disclosure: in a “previous life” I was employed as a part of the Hispanic Scholarship Fund’s Communications department. To its credit, HSF funds thousands of Latino high school, community college and university students each year — some who, without its help, would not be able to further their education.

Via The Post-Gazette

Technorati Tags: latino marketing, beer, cerveza, alcohol, hispanic marketing, youth, anheuser busch, hispanic advertising