NASCAR: liquored up.

DEFYING OUTRAGE OVER THE MIXING of drinking and driving, and the advertising of hard liquor to youths, the NASCAR auto racing organization announced in November that it would permit sponsorships from liquor companies starting in 2005.

"We felt the time was right to allow distilled spirits companies

Helton gave assurances that all advertising and promotional campaigns from the companies will be responsible. "Spirits companies are recognized as leaders in responsibility and are encouraging adults who choose to drink, to do so responsibly," he said, adding that liquor companies will have to follow "advertising and marketing guidelines set by NASCAR that are consistent with the Distilled Spirits Council's advertising code."

Public health advocates were having none of it.

"NASCAR's decision to abandon 30 years of limiting the promotion of alcoholic beverages at its racing events spells trouble for young race fans and for national efforts to reduce the association of drinking and driving," .

"The point of this deal is to sneak rolling liquor ads onto network television, where millions of NASCAR's underage and impressionable fans will see them," says the Center for Science in the Public Interest's Alcohol Policies Project Director George Hacker. "The networks' longstanding refusal to run liquor ads is seriously under siege."

"NASCAR's assurances that the sponsorships will be responsible and meet current liquor-industry advertising standards is faint comfort," Hacker adds. "Those standards are vague, industry-friendly and unenforceable. Likewise, the new sponsors' commitments to 'responsibility' advertising are laughable. Having the liquor industry promote responsible drinking is like having Ronald McDonald promote healthy eating or Joe Camel promote smoking cessation."