Beer Commercial Brews Condemnation from Senior Organizations, Advocates

Published in the Pawtucket Times on May 13, 2002

This Bud’s Not for You.”

That’s what radio commentator Bill Benson told his vast WMKV-FM listening audience in Cincinnati, Ohio, last July when he called for Anheuser-Bush to pull a radio commercial that used elder abuse to pitch Bud Ice beer.

Sadly, this month Bill Benson reported in is Washington Aging Report that Anheuser-Busch again has brewed “bad faith” with the showing of another trashy television commercial.

Last July, Benson rallied aging advocates from across the nation to successfully force Anheuser-Bush, the maker of Budweiser beer, to pull a controversial radio commercial off the air.

Benson – a former acting assistant secretary for aging at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services who now heads the Maryland-based Benson Consulting Group- along with the AARP and aging advocates, condemned the St. Louis-based beer company for using ageism to sell its brews.

Last July, much to the surprise or Anheuser-Busch officials, wide-spread criticism erupted with the release of its advertising campaign, “She Married Steven Buck Simpson.”

The commercial featured a 22-year-old woman gleefully talking about how she physically, emotionally and financially abused her frail 93-year-old tycoon husband. Ultimately, the young woman leaves the country in her elder husband’s private jet taking away all his money.

Benson along with elder law attorneys, ombudsmen, and aging advocates, called the advertising campaign tacky, bombarding the station’s largest beer maker with calls, tells  letters and emails.

“Elder abuse is not a joking matter and your message to the country is inappropriate,” said AARP President Ester Canja in a letter sent to Anheuser-Busch CEO August A. Busch III.

When the dust settled this public relations fiasco, the commercial was quickly pulled.

But now a new television commercial has drawn the ire of Benson and his fellow aging advocates.

In a recent radio commentary, Paul Greenwood, who heads the Elder Abuse Prosecution Union at San Diego County’s District Attorney’s Office, told Benson of a commercial he viewed while watching a televised NBA basketball game on April 29 on TNT

Greenwood became annoyed when Anheuser-Busch ran a spot featuring young people ripping off vulnerable adults.

The offensive commercial began with a young couple seated on a dining room table with the aging parents of the young woman. The young man, evidently the daughter’s significant other tells her elderly parents that he and his daughter look forward to moving in and gaining the property when they die.  Then he apparently complements the elderly parents for still having “motor skills” and finishes by saying, “She tells me you are loaded.”

Every day Greenwood sees the impact of exploitation of older Americans, said Benson.  His unit has prosecuted 124 felony elder abuse cases in 2000, and 147 felony cases in 2001.  This year, the number of cases prosecuted may well reach 225. That’s why Greenwood got offended when the beer commercials trivialized the financial exploitation of the elderly.

Just as he did when the last commercial raised his ire. Benson put the spotlight on the new Anheuser-Busch spot, giving it a thumbs-down in his latest Washington Aging Report and calling on thousands of aging advocates , via the internet, to urge the company to drop the commercial.

At press time, Anheuser-Busch officials had no comment about the latest controversial ad campaign.

Maybe it is time for the beer maker to solicit proposals to seek the services of a new advertising firm, one that can create material that is both humorous and creative, yet not offensive.

At the very least, they should require the creative types who develop the company’s advertising strategies to attend sensitivity training seasons.

In his radio  commentary, Benson firmly stated “my taste buds will no longer taste Bud again.” With hundreds of thousands of aging advocates and seniors following his  lead Anheuser-Busch just might finally get it at least this time around.

The Best of…Before ‘Crossing Over,’ Leave a Legacy of Love

           Published May 6, 2002, Pawtucket Times

          Dead men (or women) tell no tales.

          That’s not true for millions of viewers who watch the syndicated hit series “Crossing Over” with John Edward.  The 31-year old internationally acclaimed m medium has touched the hearts and souls of the American public as he uses his uncanny mediumistic ability to connect audiences with their loved ones who have “crossed over.”

         Belive him or not, this show is making waves throughout southern New England, according to Judy Shoemaker, director of promotions for ABC 6.  The dead have something to say and Edward is listening to what they say, she noted.

       Attesting to the popularity of the show, 2,500 tickets costing $45 were sold out in just one hour after being made available for yesterday’s gathering at the Rhode Island Convention Center.

       Edward was the sponsor of the Providence event.  Before Sunday, tickets were sold on E-Bay, prices going for as high as $450 per ticket.

        Edward’s visit to the Renaissance City is the most anticipated promotional event that ABC 6 has sponsored in the last 30 years, noted Shoemaker.  The Providence-based television station on Orms Street – which now airs Edward’s one-hour show on weekdays at 4 p.m. – received hundreds of letters, emails and calls for the last several weeks from frantic fans wanting to go to the event.

        “This show has moved and touched so many people and it makes them feel good,” Shoemaker said, explaining why the show sold out so quickly.

        According to the Sci-Fi Channel, age 50-plus viewers watching “Crossing Over” represents 38 percent of the 503,000 viewers on late Monday-Thursday evenings and 30 percent of the 553,000 viewers of the program at its late Sunday night time slot.

       Rose O. Boucher, 84, a life-long Pawtucket resident, regularly tunes into “Crossing Over” on the Sci-Fi Channel and on ABC 6.  For her, Edward’s show “is educational and relaxing to watch,” she says. Boucher likes how it helps people who have worries and doubts.  Responding to Edward’s skeptics, she said, “There are a lot of things in the world that we don’t know about.”

       According to Edward, at age 15 he tried to debunk a psychic that was doing readings at his grandmother’s house. Going into his reading skeptical, Edward came out impressed with the psychic’s accuracy.

       “The information that came through was factual and not generalities,” Edward said, who noted that she even predicted that he would do the work if he chose to.

        Even with 16 years of studying psychic development and metaphysics, Edward never has forgotten his Catholic upbringing and he believes that it has even enhanced his own religious beliefs.

       While he does not attend church regularly, he is constantly praying with his rosary and doing his spiritual work.  “Using your rosary and saying a repetition of prayers significantly helps you raise your own vibration and frequency,” he says.

        “Everyone is psychic,” Edward said. “Be open to learning about spiritual development.  Go to a metaphysical bookstore or the new age section in a bookstore and let the book pick you.”

       Edward looks at death this way — “Energy cannot be created or destroyed, yet it can change forms.  I just look at death as a transition of the energy of the soul outside of the body.” Over the years, Edward said he has found that his readings have solidified and strengthened the religious beliefs of many people.

        Is there a heaven or hell? No, said Edward.  The other side is made up of different levels and you gravitate to the level appropriate to your spiritual growth.  “The higher more evolved levels might be deemed the heavenly levels while the lower levels are for people who are not so [spiritually advanced].

       Edward urges people to take the opportunity to communicate and validate others in their lives before they “cross over” so that a medium is not required to do it for them.

       Before you greet death, leave your legacy of love behind.  That’s what it is really all about, said the frequently humorous and down-to-earth medium.

       Leaving your legacy of love behind is as simple as looking your loved one in the eyes and saying, “I love you.”

       Herb Weiss is a Pawtucket-based freelance writer who covers aging, healthcare and medical issues.  This article was printed in the May 06, 2002 issue of the Pawtucket Times.

State Funding Can Bring More Senor Centers into Accreditation Fold

Published in Pawtucket Times on April 29, 2002

The smallest state in the union has become a major player in the accreditation movement for senior centers.

This month, Pawtucket’s Leon Mathieu Senior Center celebrated its successful efforts to receive national accreditation bestowed       by the National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC), a unit of the Washington, DC-based National Council on Aging, Inc.  With INSC’s seal of approval, Pawtucket’s only senior center, along with 11 other senior centers in the state, have joined an elite group of 71 centers across the national who have demonstrated excellence, adhered to NISC’s polities and procedures and have met the national aging group’s very high standards.

A strong commitment to become accredited and the dedication of time and resources during the self-assessment process are key for a nonprofit board, a mayor, or town manager to successfully meet the high standards set by NISC’s national accreditation program, says Kathy McNamee, Warwick’s director of senior services.

“Every senior center that has gone through the accreditation process may operate a little differently due to the community they service, but they must bee the boilerplate for NISC’s national standards.

“Not everyone wants to get accredited,” McNamee adds, noting that it is a very individual decision for each community to  make.

After reviewing the NISC manual used for self-assessment, some communities decide that they are just not prepared to go forward,” she says.

“Attempting to balance your workday while taking on a project of this magnitude may really give you second thoughts,” she adds.

Meanwhile, McNamee urges those choosing not to go through the accreditation process to utilize NISC’s self-assessment manual to see how they operate.

“It will make you aware of issues a senior center must conform in  coming years to come,” she says, noting that the process can easily assist directors in identifying the strength and weaknesses of their operation.

McNamee, president of the Rhode Island Senior Center Directors Association, said senior centers pulling in community input may spend up to one year gathering information to answer questions in nine areas of the center’s operations.

When the self-assessment phase is completed, a day-long on-site peer review is performed by a certified trained professional who works closely with an off-site reviewer will either lead to accreditation, provisional, no accreditation.

What are the benefits of meeting NISC’s national accreditation standards?

“Accreditation means that what we are doing here is really cutting-edge,” said Joan Crawley, director of the Leon Mathieu Senior Center.

With 12 senior centers in the Ocean State already accredited by NISC, “Rhode Island is already way ahead of the curve,” she told All About Seniors. “By meeting national standards, we are in a good position to seek grants and funding.

Accreditation creates pride in a senior center, too. Eighty-year old Sarah Gauvin, a retired book-keeper and member of the Pawtucket Senior Citizens Council, loves the idea that the Leon Mathieu Senior Center received state and national recognition by receiving NISC’s accreditation.

“This means that we are first class and it is acknowledging our hard work,” she says.

Director Barbara Rayner, of the state’s Department of Elderly Affairs, is to be commended for their efforts to financially assist the 12 Rhode Island senior centers that are enrolled in NISC’s national accreditation program. However, the state may ultimately be penny-wise but pound-foolish by not assisting every non-accredited senior center in following the footsteps of Pawtucket’s Leon Mathieu Senior Center and the 11 other accredited centers, considering the new federal interest in the outcome measures and quality assurance of providing community-based services.

Over the next several years, the DEA might consider budgeted funds to assist every cash-strapped senior center in paying the accreditation fee if they have a strong commitment and community support to proceed.

Combine this with the sharing of ideas and expertise among Rhode Island’s accredited senior centers and with those senior centers wishing to embark on the road to accreditation, and you just might have the right ingredients to bring senior centers in every community into the accreditation fold.