Diageo Admits Targeting 18-24 Year Olds for Red Stripe Alcopop

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Red Stripe Hopes Young Ladies Can't Resist New Raspberry Beer



The women of the world, with their sweet, delicate and occasionally underaged palates, have already been feted by alcohol companies with supposedly female-friendly sugary alcoholic beverages like Mike's Hard Lemonade, Smirnoff Ice and Sour Power Moonshine. Now, Jamaican brewery Red Stripe is throwing their beer hats into what they seem to believe is the XX mix, making a raspberry flavored brew for the ladies. The very, very young ladies. And people in the U.S. are not all that happy about it.

Grub Street reported that the beer, dubbed "Red Stripe Burst" (ugh) is geared towards women in the 18-24 range, and obviously over here in the United States of America, the legal drinking age is a grand ol' 21. So while it's all well and good to tempt the legal 18-year-old drinkers in Jamaica, US watchdog groups worry the flavored beer, or "alcopops," will make its way into the very small hands of teenagers. "Alcopops or FMBs were designed as 'cocktails on training wheels,' sweet and fruity, to lure underage youth into unhealthy drinking behaviors, especially underage girls," Bruce Lee Livingston, Executive Director of watchdog group Alcohol Justice, said in a statement yesterday.


Selling sweet beers to kids is a concern, though, and groups are lobbying to keep Red Stripe Sugar Diabetes Funtime Burst from making its way into American liquor stores. Though we're also not that happy that liquor companies keep marketing these fruity sweet drinks towards females. Maker's Mark or GTFO, everyone.

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Diageo Admits Targeting 18-24 Year Olds for Red Stripe Alcopop


SAN FRANCISCO, CA (November 7, 2013) – A Jamaican-based Diageo representative, Erin Mitchell, has admitted that a youth-oriented, alcopop product is being tested on the 18-24 year old market in Jamaica and is being considered for United States distribution.

With a shocking display of truth rarely seen among alcohol producers, Diageo’s Red Stripe Beer brand manager stated that a new raspberry Flavored Malt Beverage (FMB) product called “Burst” has been designed as a “recruitment-driven” product primarily for female 18-24 year olds.

Red Stripe is a Jamaican brewer owned by London-based global booze behemoth Diageo that also markets the Smirnoff Ice brand of alcopops. The article in “The Gleaner” November 6, 2013 included a statement by Ms. Mitchell, “We hope it has crossover appeal,” suggesting the pink and red labels and raspberry beer flavor has already been tested to appeal to young women. The title of “The Gleaner” article is, “Red Stripe Creates Raspberry Beer for Young Drinkers.” In Jamaica, where Burst is produced and distributed, there is no minimum legal drinking age. According to the article, the decision to distribute the product line in the U.S., Canada and the UK will be made by “Red Stripe teams” in those countries.

“It’s clear now that Diageo tests alcopop beverages on 18-24 year old cohorts of young women and men in other countries before marketing them in places like the United States where the drinking age is appropriately higher,” said Bruce Lee Livingston, Executive Director / CEO of Alcohol Justice. “Alcopops or FMBs were designed as “cocktails on training wheels,” sweet and fruity, to lure underage youth into unhealthy drinking behaviors, especially underage girls. Now we have written proof that Diageo is leading the charge in a race to the bottom of the alcopop barrel to endanger youth.”

In the U.S., alcohol is the third leading cause of preventable death, responsible for an estimated 79,000 fatalities annually. Of those are approximately 5,000 people under age 21, the minimum legal drinking age in the U.S.

“Since our first report on youth-attractive Alcopops in 2007, we have campaigned for an end to this dangerous product category,” stated Michael Scippa, Public Affairs Director at Alcohol Justice. “Now that we have in a producer’s own words, that they are targeting people under the age of 21 with alcopops, we are renewing our call for change to reduce the threat to youth.”

“We must insist that Diageo promise not to market any Red Stripe alcopop products in the United States,” stated Livingston. “Furthermore, we ask them to start limiting their production and distribution of Smirnoff Ice products which come in many sweet and fruity youth-oriented flavors.”

In the U.S., products such as Smirnoff Ice, Bud Light Straw-Ber-Rita, and Four Loko are very popular among underage drinkers, loaded with up to 12% alcohol, and often priced cheaper than non-alcoholic energy drinks to appeal to the youth market.

“It may be time for the Federal Trade Commission and the Food and Drug Administration to look at the marketing and product development of Diageo brands,” said Livingston. “The fruit and fruit flavoring additives to alcopops could arguably be viewed as food additives to an alcohol product. Additionally, the states,as the primary regulators of alcoholic beverages, have full legal authority to ban dangerous alcoholic products like alcopops to help mitigate the devastating public health threat they present to underage drinkers. It may also be time for even state attorneys general to subpoena Ms. Mitchell and Diageo’s records on how they test alcopops before putting them in the U.S. market.”

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while waiting for some school tingy to finish up, overheard another parent comparing and contrasting life in the US vs Europe etc. She is British. she went on and on with the usual complaints i.e worklife balance, vacation time, health insurance hawse dead and cowfat


One of her complaints was that here if you take out your child for dinner or whatever, you cannot even get them a glass of wine at dinner.