Bananaman

I think that's quite an important point to take on board. As an alcoholic my attitude towards booze, my thinking about booze, and my appetite for booze once I've started drinking are completely alien to the non-alcoholic. We alcoholics are living on a different planet from the person who sometimes enjoys a glass of wine with dinner or a beer when watching football on tv, but who wouldn't dream of stopping off at the supermarket every evening to pick up a bottle of vodka and a 6-pack of beer.

Advertisers and movie-makers do indeed glamorise drinking. Imagine James Bond ordering a Coca-Cola from the barman instead of his usual 'shaken not stirred', or John Wayne pushing open the swing doors of the cowboy saloon bar and ordering a lemonade instead of whiskey; it's unthinkable. But the message is ubiquitous, if that's the word I want. The message is that drinking is normal. Drinking is cool and sophisticated and sociable and attractive. Drinking is sexy...And drinking too much is funny. It's a myth I bought in to 100%. I lived in a fantasy world.

I was a liquour advertiser's wet dream. I can honestly say I have never once been bored during a booze commercial. I assume, though, that for normal people these advertisements are no more interesting than toilet paper ads. Now, there's a thought. Imagine if the brand of bottom tissue one used was a lifestyle choice. That's about the level of insanity being peddled.

I'd love to see a commercial that told the truth:
Drink Bananaman Beer, it gets you sloshed in no time. (We take no responsibility for any adverse effects experienced after drinking our product.)

Anyway, I've rambled a bit there, but I think it's an interesting topic.

Bananaman.