Tuesday 8 September 2009

Driving Us All To Drink…

There should be a ban on all alcohol advertising, including sports and music sponsorship, doctors say.
‘Doctors’..?

What, all of them?

Well, no. It’s merely their union, the British Meddling Association yet again, as Counting Cats has also noted…
The British Medical Association said the crackdown on marketing was needed along with an end to cut-price deals to stop the rising rates of consumption.
I don’t suppose it’s occurred to anyone that the rising levels of consumption might have something to do with the overabundance of hectoring busybodies telling us all what we should eat, drink and smoke, has it?
Doctors said action was needed as alcohol was now one of the leading causes of early death and disability.

Only smoking and high blood pressure is responsible for a greater burden of disease, according to the World Health Organization.
So, since the smoking ban hasn’t (obviously) worked to help us all to live forever, and the obesity campaign is barely off the ground, no reason not to go for the hat-trick, is it?

But are those dire-sounding statements thrown around so carelessly a bit misleading? Well, yes.

Is anyone surprised?
The report points out that while the money spent on alcohol advertising -nearly £200m a year - remained significant, there had been a growth in more subtle types of marketing.

The alcohol industry had, in particular, become a major sponsor of sports events - second only to the finance sector in terms of overall funding.
Well, I know the tedium of watching a few people run around and around always makes me feel like a gin and tonic, but I don’t think it has that much effect on everyone else, does it?
Report author Professor Gerard Hastings said alcohol was now promoted more heavily than ever.

He added: "Given the alcohol industry spends £800m a year in promoting alcohol in the UK, it is no surprise that we see it everywhere - on TV, in magazines, on billboards, as part of music festival or football sponsorship deals, on internet pop-ups and on social networking sites.

"All these promotional activities serve to normalise alcohol as an essential part of every day life."
You mean, it shouldn’t be? We should regard it as something forbidden, and dangerous, and not to be trusted to have around?

Well, yes, I’m sure that’d work…
As well as calling for the outright ban on such marketing and advertising, the BMA said there needed to be a reduction in licensing hours and tougher rules in place on price.

The doctors' body once again reiterated its call for minimum pricing to be introduced to help combat promotions such as happy hours and two-for-one purchases and higher levels of tax.
And what happened the last time they called for this, then?

Oh, that’s right. The government, in a rare moment of sanity, told them to sod off:
But so far the Department of Health has resisted such calls, preferring to encourage the industry to sign up to voluntary codes to encourage responsible drinking.
And is there a cadre of pressure groups lining up to support them in their call for us to be treated like children?

You bet:
Dr Vivienne Nathanson, the BMA's head of science and ethics, said: "The BMA is not anti-alcohol. As doctors our focus is to ensure that individuals drink sensible (sic) so they do not put their health and lives in danger."

Alison Rogers, chief executive of the British Liver Trust, said the report put a "compelling case for change".

"Alcohol is now marketed as a staple part of our diet in the UK.
"The way it is advertised, positioned in stores and its sheer cheapness leads people into feeling that buying and consuming large amounts of alcohol regularly is just the same as life's essentials like bread and milk."

And Don Shenker, of Alcohol Concern, added: "There's no longer any doubt - the heavy marketing and promotion of alcohol, combined with low prices - are encouraging young people to drink at a level our health services are struggling to cope with."
But the fakecharity business is doing very nicely out of it.

Isn’t it?

And will only extend its grasp to other things, unless stopped.

Update - over at 'The Devil's Kitchen', 'The Filthy Smoker' weighs in too.

9 comments:

JPT said...

Ban all advertising I say - the whole bloody lot.
Seriously.
And watch the bastards squirm.
It's all designed to make you part with your money for something you certainly don't need and probably don't want but you are persuaded to hand over your dosh by slick bullshit adverts.
Theft I call it.

Anonymous said...

So after the guns/fags/booze/drugs/cars/holidays/flying//tasty food/sweat shops/adverts wars what next?

adverts?
nice clothes?
soap?
perfume?
electricty?
older books? (no really... )
roof tiles?
shoes?
hoes?
zips?
electricty?
torches?
moving from your village?
breeding freely?

Do you think I'm kidding?

Cos I'm not. This is exactly what the people we are fighting want.

Can you imagine the horror?

I would choose the Nazi's or the Stalinists in a nano-second.

Really make an effort here and think about these words:

There are no indivdual actions or thoughts in the state machine:

The greatest principle of all is that nobody,
whether male or female, should be without
a leader. Nor should the mind of anybody
be habituated to letting him do anything at
all on his own initiative ; neither out of zeal,
nor even playfully. But in war as well as in
the midst of peace to his leader he shall
direct his eye and follow him faithfully. And
even in the smallest matter he should stand
under leadership. For example, he should
get up, or move, or wash, or take his meals
. . only if he has been told to do so . . In
a word, he should teach his soul, by long
habit, never to dream of acting independently,
and in fact, to become utterly incapable of it.
PLATO OF ATHENS. 350 B.C.

That's the actual meta program.

(I have posted this before eleswhere - I'm sorry. It really frightens me.)

Anonymous said...

JPT - really?

Tell me more?

JPT said...

davidncl: A brief example, I recently cleaned out my kitchen cupboards for admitedly the first time in a little while and at the back of several cupboards were long forgotten must have kitchen gadgets that had been bought (usually by my wife) used once (mostly the day after purchase) and then discarded to the back of the cupboard!
If I open any drawer or cupboard (don't even mention the shed) in my house a similar story awaits.
I think I'll downsize, become minimalist or something.
Where does the money go to? we all say. That's where.

Anonymous said...

We recently chucked out our back of cupboard shit and bought a Magimix stainless steel 5200...motor guaranteed for 12 years, and her mums' Kenwwod from 1970 (which appears to be made out of girders), as a backup sitting in the cupboard.

Nothing else required.

Rob said...

The BMA IS anti-alcohol. They are prohibitionists. They just cannot admit it publicly because it will blow the whole deal. They have to introduce it bit by bit, with salami tactics.

Mike said...

A society without drink is like a country that has no horses. Uninhabitable by civilised humans. As for advertising, anyone who offers an explanation for their decision making process as a unique consequence of advertisements is either a robot, mistaken or lying to pass the buck of responsibility.

JuliaM said...

"It's all designed to make you part with your money for something you certainly don't need..."

Oh, that's true all right.

"That's the actual meta program."

Scary indeed. Soon enough, I hope, they'll overreach themselves. But it better come soon.

"A society without drink is like a country that has no horses."

:)

Weekend Yachtsman said...

"...the heavy marketing and promotion of alcohol, combined with low prices..."

So, according to him, in countries where there's less or no marketing, and prices are much higher, the problem should not exist?

Sweden anyone? Finland?

And also according to him, in countries where the price is much lower, and the licencing laws lax or non-existent, the problem should be much worse.

France, anyone? Italy? Awash with drunks, both of them. Not.

They're just meddling incompetents, aren't they.