ViciousCycle

We should be mad. Really mad.

I have been thinking about this a lot lately. The media glamorizes alcohol consumption. Period. Now I realize that IS the idea of advertising, to make people desire something. I get that. But they really go overboard with the drinking commercials.

A couple holding hands at a table clothed restaurant with big honkin' glasses of wine, gazing into each others eyes.
Booze=Romance

The couple sitting on an exclusive resort beach with a bucket of beer between the two of them.
Booze=Travel

The scantily dressed woman beach bartender handing out preferred beer.
Booze=Sex

The less calorie beer vs. a margarita
Booze=Health

The woman going into a bar, taking his hand and saying no-no, this.
Booze=refinement

You can see where I am going with this, I could go on and on.

Someday I hope they show the flip side.

Someone dry heaving in the morning.
Someone calling in sick again.
Someone fighting with their spouse.
Someone sitting alone in a dark room with a drink in their hands.
Someone with the shakes so bad they cannot hold a cup.
Someone just acting sloppy.

I think on a subliminal level this is one big reason we crave this crap. Of course we want to drink, look at all the opportunities it brings!!!!!!!!!!!

That in itself is a bunch of crap. It made my "life" a deep dark living hell.

Thanks.
VC

Cerberus

and then don't forget the useless but legally necessary disclaimer of *please drink responsibly! even though we are totally tempting you.

Threshold

I was JUST thinking about this yesterday at work. They've been playing a classic country music station in the store, and that was the music I lived on in high school. So much of it is about drinking, how it's tough, how it drowns sorrows, how it's the lifestyle, how it's fun, etc etc. I wondered how much I internalized those messages. How, simply by wanting to fit in, to belong to SOME sub culture I stepped into that role.

Then rock and roll and drugs. Then "woman's" movies, and women turning to pills secretly/silently to deal with the pressure of job, failing marriages.Women turning to affairs, to acting out sexually to prove equality, or liberation, or that they are still desirable. I fell prey to all those ideas.It simply seemed the thing to do. It's how our culture, generation deal with life, right?

now I see it is how we DON'T deal with life.

I am glad I got a kick to the head before I gave away any more years of my life to using addiction in all it's expressions.

FT

Hi,

I grew up in the 50's, when male movie stars ALWAYS "needed" a drink in every stressful situation.

Booze = expected reward for "hard work"

Just watch any 50's movie and you will see what I mean.

FT

loveon2legs

I'm aware of this to....there is no truth to advertising!! but people buy into all the time...heck..I did at one time as well!!! if they actually told the truth..like showing somebody in the hospital yellow from liver failure from drinking....or somebody spending all their money on booze and can't feed their family...probably wouldn't sell alot of their poison!!!

stugotz

News Flash - There are millions of people that can drink, get drunk, and sometimes throw-up, all without being an Alcoholic. Just sayin....

ViciousCycle

I knew someone would say that. I realize that. I get that. I just think sometimes the flip side should be addressed. Just sayin' too.

I am new in sobriety (again) and maybe it is just getting my goat right now.

FT

I think the point here is that it is an error for the media to glamorize drinking. Maybe there are millions who can and do drink without becoming alcoholics. However, advertising is almost always targeted at young people, who tend to be more influenced by this type of advertising. Advertisers know this well, and it is MONEY and not social well being that they are interested in.

Anyway, who said it is healthy for ANYBODY to get so drunk they throw up? Who ARE those people? Usually the ones I just described.

When I grew up, cigarettes were advertised in full color ads by DOCTORS telling us how much better their throats felt with a particular brand.

The line has to be drawn somewhere.

Just sayin.

stugotz

Good then no surprises. The dark side is shown all the time in the media. Almost every reality show addresses it not to mention all the "rehab" shows. Cops, Lockup, Jail just to mention a few.

As far as getting your Goat, It took me the better part of a year to get over the urge to body slam anyone with a beer in their hand. That feeling of hoplesness will go away. Good luck.

24hrsAday

body slamming folks will get you to that Cops and jail thing also.. my Favorite thing is when someone is really Drunk and they just keep on repeating themselves Over and over and over.. wonder if "I" ever did that???? lmao

Latte

I know some of my friends joke that women were much calmer in the 50's-Dr.'s were regularly prescribing "mothers little helper." It's not a joke though really. It's just sad really.

The great thing-I can turn off the TV and refuse to buy magazines that advertise things I don't agree with. Drinking and using drugs aren't the only things either. I have power to act like a real human being these days and I am enjoying teaching my children how to manage their feelings and embrace them without those aids. (I am not knocking medications for medical conditions-don't get me wrong).

ViciousCycle

Oh go watch a shuttle launch. Just kidding Stu, I actually stayed in Merritt a couple months ago. I miss the Florida food!

Supercrew

The media isn't the problem, it's how YOU react to the image the media is presenting.

For 27 years I lived for alcohol because to me it meant success, sex, relaxation, fun, etc. Now I see that I allowed myself to be brainwashed into thinking alcohol was helping me enjoy all of these things when the reality was alcohol was just making me drunk and not allowing me to remember them.

I make it a point to point out to my sons regularly that alcohol is a drug that dulls your senses and lowers your inhibitions not a magical elixir that makes your life better. I wish a responsible adult who I respected would have set me straight in my youth.

CarolD

My pet peeve are the cooking shows....when the Chef's slosh alcohol in the dishes ...gaily proclaiming....."It burns off"
and then serve it to children......:

It's simply not true....I often share the info here with the facts

Yes...I did begin drinking to appear to be more sophisticated and to rebele against my non drinking family....
same with sex and cigarettes... before TV...the movies were my source of mis information..
I so yearned to be special....not a kid from a small town in Mo.

It never occured to me that I would ever cross the line into alcoholism....i knew no one who drank and the only movie I recall from those days that showed an alcoholic was "The Lost Weekend"

How can I as a recovered alcoholic help anyone interested in doing the same ? By example......and sharing my story. So can you.
We really can and do recover......
i'm so pleased none of my 5 Grandchildren are drinkers...and only 1 did drink....he's now 12 years AA recovered..

Kjell

Hi VC-

I find the less TV I watch, the happier I am.

Wonder why? (being coy here, but really, think about it, how much postive TRUTH is on the TV?)

Kjell~

ViciousCycle

Hi Kjell

I agree. I was holed up sick over the long 4th weekend and had the idiot box on as I was on the couch. There certainly are a lot of stupid and distressing things on there. I cannot even believe some of the language they get away with. Anyway, I was overloaded with the glamorous life alcohol provides....*cough* I was living large and didn't even remember it! lol..

WritingFromLife

VC i get sick of the tv glam and advertising, also. I also believe Stu is 100% right; however, when i consider all the harm alcohol has done to so many, I find it hard to get past wondering how many of the people I see out "drinking normally" are high functioning alcoholics like I was and I want to scream how much better life is without the poison. Like I have some sort of secret to life.

I dunno. It's probably not a healthy attitude, I don't spend a lot of time obsessing over other people's alcohol use, and I do "live and let live" as much as a I can, but I just downright hate the stuff. I had to go down the wine aisle at the grocery store a few days ago and I told it to go to _____!

With maturity, I'm sure I will change!

ACT10Npack

I use to have a problem with it but it's part of life. Personal I think a lot of people on this topic is not upset about the media glamorizes alcohol but that fact that you can't be part of the experience anymore.

I always heard about drunk driving and someone dying in the news a few times a week on the radio or news.

Just my 2 cents on the matter of this topic. :-)

stugotz

I did, and it was awesome...

ADaisyifyoudo

Let's just face it, there's a lot of money to be made getting people to buy your (alcoholic or otherwise) beverages, and so there's a lot of ads that are going to show that alcohol = everything good in the world.

I'm in the ad business and I've never worked for a liquor or other alcohol brand for one simple reason: their primary targets are generally "heavy" drinkers. (I say generally because some vinyards/wines are exceptions). But the majority do. They call them different things in their "personas": "occasion celebrators" (binge drinkers); "cocktail afficionados" (high-end liquor over-indulgers). . .you get the picture. The end goal is the same - to get people to buy your brand more often, in larger quantities. . .that is, to target (or help enable) alcoholics. Those that get too sloppy or kill people driving drunk, well, we're clearly bad for business, so they do the necessary PR around "responsibility."

Everyone gives the pharma manufacturers a bad rap for DTC advertising, and some of it is well deserved, but honestly, at least some of the time those products HELP people.

Stepping off soapbox now, thanks for indulging me.