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Friday, May 11, 2007

Spykes is Spiked By ATTTB Over Warning Label


According to a Wall Street Journal report, production of Spykes, a malternative that has generated some criticism for Anheuser-Busch Cos., was stopped for a week during April when the U.S. Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (ATTTB) ruled its labels violated federal law.

The ATTTB said the required health warnings on the labels were too small and difficult to read. Spykes comes in two ounce sizes, which leave little space for labeling. The ATTTB bureaucrats got out their rulers and found the warnings contained 41 to 47 characters per inch. The maximum allowed characters per inch is 40. The ATTTB also said that several of the labels had colors that made the warnings impossible to read.

Spykes is a 12 percent alcohol by volume drink that has been the target of a number of anti-alcohol groups that claim it is aimed at underage drinkers. Some criticize the fact that Spykes contains caffeine, guarana and ginseng and might be confused as an energy drink. For its part A-B points out the labels had already received approval from federal and state officials before they went into production.

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