Doug39

Years ago I used to watch the TV show Parks and Recreation.

Back then I started watching it in the 3rd or 4th season so when I saw it on Netflix I started to binge watch it from the beginning.

I got through about 25 episodes and I noticed that in most of the episodes someone got drunk and in almost every episode someone was at least drinking alcohol.

I was up to an episode near the end of Season 2 and it took place in a nightclub and many of the characters were drunk.

I stopped watching and abandoned the desire to continue binge watching.

Now that I am sober I am more sensitive to such things and it really bothers me how alcohol abuse is glamorized. I guess getting drunk is funny to these sitcom writers and sure, it would be OK here and there, but it was like almost every episode someone drinks too much.

Maudcat

When I became sober, I started noticing how many times people referenced drinking in the day-to-day.
“God, what a day! I really need a drink!”
“I got hammered last night. Still feeling crummy..”
Etc.
We just become more aware.
And the ads always show young, attractive, THIN people drinking.
Alcohol is big business. Lots of revenue in drinking.

scaredikklegoth

It's such a huge part of our culture and yes you do notice it everywhere once you sober up. It'd seem a lot less glamorous to people if they saw people jaundiced and withered to nothing, livers swollen and destroyed, bloated faces, diarrhea, etc etc.

It's like how tv and films glamourise being thin without showing all the awful things anorexic people go through.

Solarion

Glamorizing is a good choice of words because they really are casting a glamour (illusory appearance) over it -- selling the dream rather than the reality, just as with so many things in our market-oriented, advertise/manipulate/hypnotize/consume "culture". Bunch of economic vampires feeding off us.

ScottFromWI

Yep, it happens. Thing is, it can only affect you if you watch it/let it. Advertisements are just words, pictures and sounds. We can't change it, so we might as well choose to ignore of dismiss it.

Ken33xx

After getting sober I didn't notice the glamoroization of alcohol by the entertainment industry as much as I noticed how many people can drink responsibly

Guess I was too busy getting hammered to realize not everyone in the room was as wreaked as I.

Downthepath

I suppose we just become more aware of it in the same way that smokers are acutely aware of the smell of cigarettes when they quit.
I am noticing a lot more people that I am concerned may be problem drinkers. Friends of mine. I wasn't honest with myself about my drinking before I came here. Now I'm being more 'honest' about other people's drinking - without actually saying anything.

skyfullofstars

It is even on clothing! I've been browsing online for a new Christmas jumper, and so many of them have a slogan relating to gin or prosecco on them. I know it is just a trend like that stupid unicorn motif that seems to be on every item of clothing or accessory right now but it has really niggled me.

I've only just stopped drinking so I know I am a little hypersensitive right now but it was still being shoved in my face when clothes shopping. No wonder this country has such a booze problem.

In the end I bought a men's jumper in a size small, nobody has to know

JeffreyAK

Yes, I noticed it all too after I quit. The store displays too, like the half-gallons of vodka in the checkout aisle, just in case you might have forgotten to pick that up shopping for toothpaste, shaving cream, and a frozen pizza. I really don't notice it anymore, though, it just becomes background noise after a while.

FBL

Alcohol always has been and always will be a part of our culture. Doesn't mean I have to participate in it.

Mountainmanbob

After some time sober we give it not much thought.
The whole world can drink but, I'm alcoholic and don't.
Been burnt enough times by the Liquid Devil.
M-Bob

SoberCAH

Yeah, the Madison Avenue advertising industry always showed men sailboarding with hard-bellied, scantily clad young ladies.

I can't say that was my reality when i drank - it was mostly dark bars, problems with spouses, landlords, bosses, clients, bankers, friends, family, etc.

When i was young, the Dick van Dyke Show and Bewitched particularly glamorized the nightly ritual of getting home from work and getting into the whiskey.

Growing up in my family, though, made this seem exactly normal.

Hevyn

I just binge watched 'Mad Men'. In early recovery I probably couldn't have continued watching. Every person had a bar set up in their office. No one thought anything of drinking all during the day - it was expected & encouraged. As Maudcat said - everyone slim, trim, and put together.

Pondlady

I remember my first sober holiday season. I couldn't escape all the sophisticated displays of bubbly, all over the grocery store! I'd never really noticed how pervasive it was when I was drinking......probably made me feel sophisticated, even though I knew I was drinking too much.

These days I feel free of it's pull and am healthier and happier for it.

Bob4x4

Madmen, never bothered me, even though i had worked in one of the sister ad agencies, it was too far removed from my drinking and life experiences, i was never a good looking executive that drinks and smokes and has important people listen to me, i was a whipping boy in the production dept. Madmen - it may as well have been Star Wars LOL.

what bugs the crap out of me now is Stephen Colbert drinking whiskey on set with his guests. I find that egregeous and offensive with a small 'o' not a capital 'O'

August252015

I agree with comments about noticing it more - especially the "mommy wine culture" junk - but also really agree with Ken here.

I remember my Dad saying to me "if you ever quit drinking, you will notice how many people DON'T." So true. Seeing things soberly made me realize how tilted my worldview was about alcohol; tilted so I could try to normalize my abuse of it!

Eaglelizard

When I was drinking, I tended to only like watching programming/movies that featured drinking, wayward souls (drinking), misanthropic protagonists (drinking), raging alcoholics with serious problems (drinking). I guess it made me feel more aligned with the world, less out of synch. Since so many films feature protagonists with drinking/drug problems, I sometimes wonder whether a lot of script/character decisions are made in order to satisfy the consumer's desire to see and empathize with characters that share their imperfections. Sober now for a while and I have almost no interest in watching movies or TV shows at all. Maybe the sedated/drunk consumer is a much more reliable and predictable consumer.

hellrzr

I now tend to notice that when they show drinking on tv and movies it often leads to bad situations for the characters. Rarely does a character go out and get drunk and then gets there dream job and then wakes up feeling wonderful and hits the gym! More often than not they wake up feeling miserable and then realizing some huge mistake they made while drunk.

On the other hand, I don't take to heart much of anything I see on tv or movies. Hollywood is all about making money at any cost and no concern to others so keep that in mind.

Doug39

My main point was that the show Parks and Recreation makes it seem that drinking to excess on a regular basis is fun and a normal way to go through life.

It sends a bad message.

Starflyer

While I was drinking, two of my favorite shows were How I Met Your Mother and Two and a Half Men. I still enjoy these programs, but, looking back, I can see Ted and the gang always sit around drinking at the bar. There are multiple episodes where the characters get drunk, even one about a drinking game. In Two and a Half Men, Charlie is recognized as being an alcoholic but presented as someone who is still wealthy, makes money writing jingles, and sleeps with gorgeous women.