The nonprofit organisation Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) announced Monday that it was suing A-B over its Tilt and Bud Extra brands, which it says contain ingredients that could potentially be dangerous when mixed with alcohol.
But the company has hit back, defending both the products' formulation and their marketing.
"The professional anti-alcohol activists at the Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) have threatened to sue Anheuser-Busch over two of its caffeinated alcohol beverages, Tilt and Bud Extra. The formulation and labeling for these products have been approved by federal authorities, and the products are sold lawfully in all states where they are available," Francine Katz, vice president of communications and consumer affairs at Anheuser-Busch, told FoodNavigator-USA.com.
"CSPI makes truly alarmist claims about mixing alcohol and caffeine, but ironically, it has threatened to sue only the two well-known makers of lower-alcohol malt-based alternatives, while wholly ignoring the scores of caffeinated distilled spirits on the market that have a much higher alcohol content than the six or eight per cent found in our products."
CSPI said it would seek a ban against the production of Tilt and Bud Extra, as well as the Sparks brand made by rival Miller, and called for the profits from the sale of the drinks to be put into a charitable trust and spent on warning young people about the risks of excessive drinking.
The organisation claims that A-B and Miller have targeted college-age drinkers, suggesting through their advertising that the effects of the alcohol in the brands can be offset by the stimulants, allowing drinkers to continue for longer.
The CSPI also claimed that the marketing of the brands implied that consumers could safely drive their cars after drinking them.
Katz told this website that the CSPI had chosen to overlook a number of facts about the drinks, particularly about the apparent 'dangers' of mixing stimulants such as caffeine with alcohol.
"Caffeinated alcohol beverages are nothing new," she said. "Responsible adults drink cocktails like rum and Coke, Irish coffee, and Red Bull and vodka…not to mention the everyday practice of many adults who may have wine with dinner and coffee with dessert."
"And it is also important to note that neither Bud Extra nor Tilt is overloaded with caffeine. Tilt has roughly one-third the caffeine in a 12-ounce cup of Starbuck's coffee; Bud Extra has roughly one-fourth. Both are well below federal limits."
And she was dismissive of the CSPI's accusations about the way the drinks were being marketed.
"When CSPI trots out their perennial charge that our products target minors, as they did with Tilt and Bud Extra, they ordinarily point to our TV and radio advertising. However, they conveniently neglected to mention these mediums because we are not airing TV or radio ads for these two products."
"The best CSPI could do is point to the products' packaging and their colors. Our packaging may not be the plain, generic look CSPI would prefer, but it clearly appeals to today's contemporary adults. And as for the products' colors, go to any bar, and you will find drinks available in every color of the rainbow, such as a green apple martini and a pink cosmopolitan."
"The bottom line is these products are sold in stores where customers must provide proof of age in order to purchase alcohol, and it is perfectly legal for a seller to make its product attractive to adults who can buy them."
The CSPI has urged both A-B and Miller to settle out of court.
But Katz said: "If these activists believe that caffeinated alcohol beverages should not be sold, they should persuade the relevant regulatory authorities to outlaw them entirely."
"So long as the beverage category itself is lawful, Anheuser-Busch may properly compete within it. We will vigorously defend our legal right to do so, especially when improperly singled out by CSPI as a publicity-generating tactic."
