Consumer Confidential: Attorneys general go after Pabst; Starbucks offers free joe

This article was originally on a blog post platform and may be missing photos, graphics or links. See About archive blog posts.

Here’s your fee-fi-fo-fum Friday roundup of consumer news from around the Web:

-- California has joined at least 14 other states in calling for Pabst Brewing Co. to stop marketing a high-alcohol beverage touted by rap star Snoop Dogg as a ‘binge in a can.’ State officials led by Illinois Atty. Gen. Lisa Madigan wrote a stinging letter to Illinois-based Pabst, maker of fruit-flavored malt beverage ‘Blast by Colt 45,’ urging the beer giant to lower the 12% alcohol content. ‘Alcohol abuse among young people is a serious and alarming epidemic,’ Madigan said in the letter. ‘A product like this only serves to glamorize alcohol abuse and promote binge drinking, threatening the safety of those consuming it.’ Madigan’s office says the high alcohol content of a 23.5-ounce can of Blast makes it equivalent to drinking an entire six-pack of beer. An ad for the brew has Snoop Dogg saying ‘What a blast, huh!?’ Not so much. Pabst should do the right thing here.

-- Speaking of doing the right thing, it’s Earth Day, so of course you’d want to celebrate with a free cup of joe. And our friends at Starbucks are here to help. If you bring in a reusable mug, Starbucks will fill it with free coffee. Last year, an estimated 1.2 million people across the U.S. and Canada participated in the Earth Day promotion, which Starbucks says kept 145 million pounds of paper out of landfills. And if you don’t have a mug of your own, the company is offering discounts on its own containers. So enjoy some legal stimulants and do something nice for the planet.

-- David Lazarus