Snoop Dogg Pitches New Sweetened Alcoholic Drink

Rapper Snoop Dogg is promoting the new fruit-flavored alcoholic drink, Blast by Colt 45, The New York Times reports.

The rapper is featured in a promotional video on YouTube, in 7-foot cardboard cutouts that will be displayed in stores and on delivery truck photos. Snoop Dogg is promoting Blast on Facebook, where he has more than 8 million followers, and Twitter, where he has more than 3 million followers.

The Marin Institute, an alcohol industry watchdog, started an online petition opposing Blast, which is sold in 23.5-ounce cans and 12 percent alcohol by volume. That is more than twice of most major beer brands. As with another well-known similar beverage, Four Loko, drinking one Blast delivers more alcohol than four 12-ounce bottles of beer. Michael J. Scippa, public affairs director for the Institute, noted that a large segment of Snoop Dogg’s fans were under 21. The company that makes Blast says it expects the drink to appeal primarily to drinkers in their late 20s or early 30s.