Stand With Beer Wins PRNEWS Platinum Award for Best Government Relations Campaign

Beer Institute campaign highlights industry economic impact, nutritional transparency and moderate consumption

WASHINGTON—The Beer Institute’s Stand With Beer campaign won the Government Relations category at the PRNEWS Platinum Awards Gala in New York City, which recognizes excellence in communications across people, teams and campaigns. StandWithBeer.org is a digital hub for policymakers, the media and adults of legal drinking age to learn how beer is different from the rest of the alcohol beverage market.  

Stand With Beer is a one-stop-shop where legislators, their staffs and members of the media can learn more about the beer industry’s deep economic impact, supporting nearly 2.4 million jobs and providing more than $132 billion in wages and benefits, as well as the hard liquor industry’s inequitable and opaque tax advantages shrouded in the tax code,” said Brian Crawford, president and CEO of the Beer Institute. “We do all of this while promoting responsible consumption, providing a moderate beverage with labeling that includes alcohol content and nutrition information that allows for complete transparency for consumers.

The Stand With Beer campaign fills a void in the broader debate surrounding alcohol tax policy and helps raise awareness about the unfair tax advantages for hard liquor, including IRC 5010 and rum cover-over.  

Internal Revenue Code (IRC) 5010 enables liquor producers to lower their effective tax rate by making liquor with wine and flavorings, which costs taxpayers billions without their awareness. Rum cover-over is a federal policy first enacted to fund infrastructure and programs benefiting the citizens of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands, but today, rum cover-over is used to benefit liquor companies instead of the people of Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  

Learn more by visiting StandWithBeer.org.

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