bullmas

Now I know why I never paid attention to football games TV beer ads

I was too busy drinking to notice them!

Thanks to the folks here at SR. ya'll sure did made it a lot easier

Cheers.

zjw

i was just joking with someone the other day about beer ads and how they should show someone like me closing the bar with puke down there shirt and having peeed there pants. Rather then the guy at the beach playing volley ball with attractive girls etc...

Too bad we cant get em on false advertising. It always starts off with the best of intentions next ya know I'm **** drunk with a lot of problems.

ScottFromWI

I usually turn off the TV completely during commercials, for my sake and my kids. We as alcoholics tend to notice the beer ads for how they glamorize drinking, but there are ads for Trucks, Food, Gambling and all sorts of other things that also glamorize things that might not be best for us. The best solution to the effects of advertising is to get rid of the source in the first place ;-)

Fabat50

I was slightly miffed tonight when arrived at my regular supermarket drive through. They have a promotion on and had wine and beer lined up tables everywhere with staff giving out discount coupons. It's not right. I am not even sure if they are allowed to do that in US/UK?

Holds1325

About 30 days in, I would drive up to our grocery store here. There was a bar across the street that had a huge sign COLD BEER HERE! I had to look at that for the next 30 days afterwards and it was tough. It was always so hot outside and my anxiety was at a high level on a constant basis.

I used to watch football alot, when those beer commercials came on I'd raise my bottle up and slam it down, it was my favorite thing to do some nights. For this reason I cannot watch football as much currently and I recently cancelled my television service because there was way too much temptation to just sit there and waste away, with a beer in my hand.

Dropsie

Beer was never my thing, but football...

juppe

I hear ya. Watching the game yesterday I saw a Corona beer commercial and it showed people snorkeling and jumping off waterfalls!! It made me laugh out loud as I imagined those actors trying to do all that while blacked out and how different the commercial would've turned out

Austin4Wyo

Not run a promotion? Can't speak for the United Kingdim, but business is business.

The onus of responsibility to not drink is on me. Those who are not alcoholic shouldn't be impeded because I can't drink. Diabetics have restriction on sugar. Is it not right to run a promo on Coca-Cola or Mountain Dew?

Fluffer

Well, actually, as a matter of public policy it is questionable whether we should be allowing advertising of sugar sodas or alcohol since they both contribute to a massive number of deaths and destroyed lives as well as government expense for medical care and social services. They are both addictive and predictably destructive to many who consume them, so, like cigarettes, it might be wise not to allow them to be promoted by advertisement. In case you haven't noticed, obesity is rampant in the USA and becoming ever more so worldwide and it can take decades off you life and make it miserable.

lillyknitting

I record EVERYTHING. Therefore avoiding watching adverts. I hate them, not just because of the alcohol adverts but all of them. The run up to Christmas, Easter and all bank holidays is particularly dire, the constant brainwashing to buy the stuff.

HCE

Congratulations on 30 days

Soberwolf

Good job Bullmas

bullmas

Talk about advertising /// I thought I was in Egypt yesterday!

Just walking through the front doors at the grocery store and was shocked , to see 3 massive Pyramids ,

made completely out of 12 pack beers. /_\ Wow !they must of had a full crew working all night to build those.


Thanks everybody!

Cheers

Austin4Wyo

This will quickly go into a debate regarding public policy and free enterprise that isn't germane to the present conversation. The point I was trying to make is that personal responsibility is a paramount concern in recovery. Stores will run promos, advertisers will buy commercials, etc, et all, and that is unlikely to change anytime soon. Blaming them for personal discomfort may be accurate, but doesn't strike me as terribly constructive for personal growth.

If I have a problem, I'm part of it. How I deal with the problem is dependent upon how I deal with myself. There have been a number of constructive solutions suggested. If my recovery is still that tenuous, I might need to spend some time thinking about whether shopping at that store at that particular time, watching sports on TV or anything else is all that important in comparison to my health, sanity, and well being. There are always alternatives, but I have to gut up and make the choice. This is analogous to a diabetic having to make lifestyle and diet changes. Nobody can do it for them.

Early recovery is insanely difficult, and it took me several attempts to get into meaningful sobriety. However, I cannot shirk accountability by attempting to place blame elsewhere. Learning effective, positive ways to get THROUGH discomfort was, and remains, a crux of my recovery. Recovery, wildly enough, remains an inside job.

biminiblue

It is an inside job, and sometimes requires drastic change. I had to eliminate advertising as much as possible, not just because of alcohol or food ads, but because of the relentless psychic dissonance I felt about them.

I no longer subscribe to magazines or newspapers, I've disconnected my TV from anything other than Netflix, which doesn't have ads. I do look at the ads the grocery store sends out, but only for clip coupons for things I buy anyway.

Austin4Wyo

Indeed. I'm not trying to take away from anyone's milestones or minimize the difficulty of adjusting daily habits in order to get into recover. It's brutal. Many don't make it. I was a chronic relapse case myself. Day in and day out, it remains my personal choice.

I just spent two hour ls aimlessly wandering downtown Denver, near Coors Field and the 16th Street Mall, where there's plenty of microbreweries and bars open by 10 AM. I was alone, and there was no accountability beyond myself.

I'm not about to blame Denver or the microwbrews and tap lounges for MY alcoholism. That sort of victimstance strikes me as highly absurd. The decision to kill time downtown in that environment, and the consequences that go with it, are mine and mine alone to own.

The rewards certainly outweigh the temporary discomfort. The passing thought of how I used to fancy myself a craft brew conneisseur happened a couple times, but it also passed. The more I focus on what is external, the less healthy my recovery is. No one can TAKE my sobriety away, I can only GIVE it away. Others' mileage will certainly vary, but I find life to be a lot more satisfying when I live in empowerment rather than in victimstance.

ScottFromWI

There will always be temptation in our lives. When I was drinking you could have eliminated every alcohol ad from every form of media and hid the beer in generic, unlabeled cans in the back room of one store an hour away from my house, but I would have driven an hour every single day to buy a 12 pack( or a case if it was a weekend day ).

Think about illicit drugs for a second - say Heroin and Meth for example. For one thing, they are of course illegal. Secondly, ALL you see in the "media" is about how bad both of these drugs are for you. Some of the ads are shocking as to how bad things get for some users of these drugs, and rightly so. But you know what, more and more people are using these drugs than ever before even in spite of those facts.

So yes, ads are distracting. Yes, they glamorize a product that can be harmful to us, especially alcoholics. But at the end of the day it's our responsibility to make the right choices no matter what we see in the course of the day.

Fabat50

Some of you guys have kind of missed my original point. I stop at my drive through supermarket for lots of different reasons including the fact that I don't like to make ANY impulse purchases....... alcohol, cigarettes, junk food for the kids .... whatever so I don't think it is right to suddenly turn up with a massive booze promotion and as a consumer I am entitled to be annoyed.

Secondly I was just venting because I am only a week into this sober business and it is kind of tough. I feel patronised by some of your subsequent comments of course I know that "only I can take responsibility for my drinking" I am not blaming the advertisers or ANYONE other than myself.

But I think manufacturers DO have a social responsibility to the consumer when it comes to how and where they place their products.

Just as an aside and fyi some supermarkets in UK are not only banning the promotion of things that are "proven to be bad for us" they are also refusing to stock them. Some supermarkets will no longer sell extra large jars of Nutella for example. And the childrens "fruit drink" Sunny delight is no longer allowed to be positioned in the fruit juice aisle because it is more sugar than fruit.

Just saying.

ScottFromWI

No one is suggesting that you don't take full responsibility for your actions Fabat. We were all in the same place you are now and understand how it feels. We truly understand.

And while your statement above might be true on a moral basis, the laws of our countries are what they are. Someday they may restrict alcohol advertising like they have with tobacco advertising, but until they do we need to learn how to live with it. Because it's not going away anytime soon.

Holds1325

They might have a social responsibility but money means more than that.

Companies are in it to make money, they don't care if you're addicted infact thats better business for them anyway.

Its pointless to blame them in our addictions, its annoying to see the advertisements yes, but they're going to be there regardless and the addiction will be there whether theres advertisements or not.