by naming beers after highway exits.
A New Jersey brewery is using the state's congested and often-derided turnpike to promote its beer, an idea that concerns the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and a group that opposes drinking and driving.
Cherry Hill-based Flying Fish Brewing Co. (motto: "Proudly Brewed in New Jersey: You Got a Problem with That?") has undertaken an ambitious project of releasing a special beer in honor of turnpike exits, one at a time.
...Joe Orlando, a spokesman for the New Jersey Turnpike Authority, said it's a bad idea to associate a highway with alcohol. Flying Fish has answered the authority's concerns with disclaimers that the beer isn't endorsed by the authority.
"There's been a brokered peace here," Orlando said. "But don't expect to see it in any of our rest areas."
That doesn't satisfy Mindy Lazar, executive director of New Jersey's chapter of Mothers Against Drunk Driving. "The combination of a roadway and advertising for any kind of a beer doesn't make any kind of sense," she said. "This is almost a mockery."
The New Jersey Turnpike Authority has more of a beef than MADD does. Ms. Lazar is suggesting that more people would drink and drive because naming a beer after an exit. It's a stretch to argue that the marginal benefit obtained from the combined actions of drinking and driving will be increased merely by naming a beer after highway exits. Does she have any empirical evidence that this is the case?