By Greg Hazley
Edelman is mounting a PR defense for Phusion Projects and its controversial caffeinated liquor drink Four Loko, which is sparking warnings and even bans across the U.S., including in the company’s home state of Washington.
The PR response has been both critical of decisions to ban its products while also stressing responsible drinking and alcohol education, especially on college campuses.
The Washington State Liquor Control Board on Nov. 10 enacted an emergency ban on caffeinated alcoholic beverages after nine students at Central Washington University fell ill in October during a party. The State of Michigan last week pushed through a similar ban and other states are considering measures.
Edelman, in a statement, criticized the Washington Liquor Board’s move as “based on misguided information” and blasted that body for not soliciting input from the company and distributors.
The firm’s Seattle office GM has not yet been reached.
Those measures to ban the product followed a move by Ramapo College in New Jersey last month, banning such drinks and pushing for a state-wide measure after 23 students were hospitalized in September after drinking Four Loko, which is 12 percent alcohol and has been marketed as “liquid cocaine in a can.”
Phusion Projects, based in Seattle, on Wednesday published an open letter to state and federal regulators noting the company has “borne the brunt” of widespread media scrutiny on alcoholic energy drinks and stressed responsible drinking while offering to a have a “discussion” to create “uniform, industry-wide standards” for such beverages.
“Our hope is that we can arrive at those standards together through an open dialogue and a discussion about where we have common ground – and we do believe there is a lot of it,” read the letter, signed by PP’s three co-founders, who expressing a desire to avoid legal action.
Earlier this month, the company and its PR firm worked to disseminate more than 200 letters to colleges offering information about its products and financial support for alcohol education efforts.
“We know that bans or restrictions on our products – or any other products for that matter – won’t solve these problems,” said co-founder Jaisen Freeman. “The only way to do that is through education, awareness and enforcement of the law.”
The Food and Drug Administration is probing such products and notified 30 manufacturers last year that they had to show their products are not harmful.
Several large companies like Anheuser-Busch and MillerCoors stopped adding caffeine to alcoholic products in recent years under pressure from regulators.
Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) this week urged the Federal Trade Commission to investigate marketing of caffeinated alcoholic beverages, as well.
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