Yogi Beer…alcohol and our family-oriented theatres

The citizens of Springfield are being asked to vote to ban any further sale and marketing of alcohol in family-oriented theatres. Wehrenberg Theatres, Inc., the corporate owner of Campbell 16 Cine in Springfield, opposes the ordinance, and would have you believe that a vote in favor of the ordinance unnecessarily restricts your “freedom of choice” to have a drink wherever you want.

I submit that true notions of freedom do not hinge on whether we can have beer or wine at a family-oriented theatre. Our freedom to drink elsewhere is not in jeopardy. On April 5, the choice is ours to preserve one of the few places left in this community where our children can enjoy an appropriately rated movie unsupervised, and be entertained without being exposed to the sale, consumption, and marketing of alcohol.

Ask yourself if Wehrenberg Theatres can be trusted to provide a safe environment for our kids. On March 1, 2011, the Department of Labor announced that Wehrenberg Theatres, Inc. was fined $25,080 for federal child labor law violations. It seems movie theatres like Wehrenberg are under close scrutiny because there are so many teenagers that work in the industry. Yet the sale and marketing of alcohol at a theatre staffed by teens has become part of Wehrenberg’s new business model.

You do not have to look far for evidence that underage drinking remains the deadliest activity for those under 21. Each year, nearly 5,000 youth under the age of 21 die as a result of alcohol-related injuries. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, kids aged 12 to 20 years drink 11% of all alcohol consumed in the country. According to the Surgeon General, youth who begin drinking by age 15 are four times more likely to develop a dependence upon alcohol than their counterparts who wait until age 21 for their first drink. Studies by the National Institutes of Health indicate that delaying the initiation of drinking by youth contributes to reductions in future alcohol problems including alcohol dependence, binge drinking and alcohol-associated traffic crashes, injuries, fatalities and violence.

If we want to do better at addressing underage drinking, we must focus on the sources of this growing problem. Prevention is the key – as opposed to the introduction of alcohol into a dark kid-friendly venue where law enforcement is virtually impossible. The Greene County Sheriff and the Greene County Prosecutor agree and strongly support this initiative.

Some have expressed concern that the proposed ordinance singles out Wehrenberg. The truth is, the ordinance treats all family-oriented theatres exactly the same (by definition, any theatre with more than one-quarter of its ticket sales going to minors). Other family-oriented theatres like Dickenson Springfield 8, the Hollywood Theatre, and The Palace elect not to make the sale of alcohol part of their business model, and I commend them for it. Wehrenberg is the only theatre in this class to cross the line and begin selling alcohol, and now wants to play the victim. So please, dismiss outright false claims that this ordinance singles out any one theatre, or that a vote in favor of this ordinance is somehow a slippery slope toward a ban on alcohol everywhere we want to go with our family.

Beyond the darkened theatre itself, when we drop our kids off for the latest Disney movie at a theatre like Cine 16, should we be concerned about what kids are confronted by in the lobby? Is there any truth to the notion that alcohol-industry marketing that glamorizes the consumption of alcohol leads our kids to believe that to have fun, they should add alcohol? According to a 2007 study published in the Journal of Adolescent Health, sixth and seventh graders exposed to high levels of alcohol advertising – from television, magazines, in-store displays and branded promotional items – are 50 percent more likely to drink than children with low exposure to such marketing. Now, I am not suggesting that we can ever remove all alcohol marketing from the eyes of our kids, and I believe that alcohol sales and marketing has its place, but in a family-oriented theatre with G-rated movies like Gnomeo and Juliet and Yogi Bear? Really?

Please vote “yes” on April 5 and exercise your freedom of choice: choose the health and safety of our kids over Wehrenberg Theatre, Inc.’s profits.

Larson Law Firm

Larson Law Firm

Kurt Larson

Call Larson Law when it is time for someone to take responsibility.

Yogi Beer…alcohol and our family-oriented theatres