Shurtleff, co-chair of the National Attorneys General's Youth Access to Alcohol Task Force, and Maine Attorney General Seven Rowe are meeting through Tuesday with industry representatives in Chicago to discuss directing beer and distilled spirits ads away from underage minors.

"The industry sells a legal product to adults and have a right to advertise to them," said Shurtleff. "The trick is trying to limit the amount of advertising exposure to those who are under 21 who are watching programs that are mostly 'adult' programing."

Shurtleff may have some some convincing to do.

A recently released report shows that between 2001 and 2003 American teenagers saw 779 television commercials selling alcohol, but only nine alcohol company commercials discouraging underage drinking.

Although 78 percent of underage youth saw television ads purchased by alcohol companies to discourage minors from drinking - they saw only nine of these ads over the entire three-year period, said the study released in July by the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at Georgetown University.

"The alcohol industry's warnings to our kids not to drink until they are 21 are buried under an avalanche of alcohol ads that glamorize drinking," the group's research director, David Jernigan, said in a statement. "This imbalance undermines the efforts of parents and teachers to warn our children against underage drinking."

Other key findings of the study:

* Alcohol ads outnumbered industry "responsibility" ads by nearly 32 to one.

* Overall, underage youth, ages 12 to 20, were 96 times more likely to see an alcohol product ad than an industry ad against underage drinking and were 43 times more likely to see an alcohol product ad than an alcohol company ad about safety or drinking and driving.

* Responsibility advertising was uneven among companies. Four alcohol companies placed responsibility ads in all three years studied, although 31 placed product ads in all three years.

In addition, another study released by the center in October shows that Latino youth ages 12 to 20 often saw and heard more alcohol advertising per capita during 2003 and 2004 than young people in their age group in general.

The report found that Latinos 12 to 20 years old saw 20 percent more alcohol advertising per capita last year than did all young people in this age group.