I’ve heard references in my marketing courses to a series of anti-marijuana posters printed during the reefer madness era that were actually sponsered by the Anheuser-Busch brewing corporation. Is there any truth to the rumor? and if so how much did the beer maker contribute to cause? Are reprints of the posters available anywhere? a nudge in the right direction would be greatly appreciated.
I don’t know about their involvement in the 1930’s propaganda compaigns, but more recently they’ve been quite interested in “negative campaigning” against marijuana and other drugs. They’ve always been a major contributor to “The Partnership For A Drug Free America.”
Beer: A Good Part of the Good Life* is an often-referred-to campaign that is attributed to Anheuser-Busch, but I’ve never seen it referenced outside of an advocacy context, so I can’t vouch for its provenance. (In fact, I doubt its veracity-- it doesn’t make any sense from a marketing point of view to invite comparison between beer and crack.)