Campaign Unavailable

In order to increase revenue, the National Basketball Association (NBA) team owners recently voted to lift the ban on courtside hard-liquor advertisements.  The NBA is also drafting policies that would allow teams to promote hard liquor on team websites, at point-of-sale retail locations, and in-arena promotions.

Beer advertisements currently flood the airways during NBA game telecasts.  Allowing hard-liquor ads at courtside will only expose kids to even more messages to drink.  Courtside liquor ads not only promote drinking to the thousands of underage fans who attend the games, but also highlight logos and brands for the hordes of young viewers at home.   The NBA has one of the largest underage TV fan bases of any major televised sport.  Permitting any courtside alcohol ads — as well as other promotions to drink — is insensitive to the young basketball fans and inconsistent with NBA public relations, in particular its NBA CARES community- and youth-oriented programs.  It is the first step toward allowing liquor commercials during the games.

Please take a moment to send a quick message to NBA Commissioner David Stern requesting that the NBA reconsider its decision to lift the ban on hard liquor advertising and reconsider all alcohol advertising during its telecasts.  Feel free to pass this Alert on to colleagues, friends, and others who are concerned about the health and safety of young people.  Thank you in advance for your help.

For more information about the Campaign for Alcohol-Free Sports TV, please visit http://www.beerfreesportstv.org