Do beer ads, college sports mix?
WASHINGTON — For millions of sports fans, “March Madness” means the long-awaited start of the NCAA basketball tournament. For the alcohol industry, the games mean a chance to spend millions advertising to a national TV audience. That marketing strategy uses the nation’s top collegiate athletes to sell beer, though many of those athletes are underage and it’s illegal for them to drink. Beer advertisements on college sports broadcasts are nothing new. But new questions are being raised about the willingness of schools to accept millions from the industry amid mounting evidence that beer and college students are a dangerous mix. Alcohol-fueled incidents are the leading cause of campus crime and health problems, and they sometimes result in death. “We…
