No Stupid Questions

One thing you see in the alcohol adds, no one ever actually drinks on screen.

Similarly, why are they allowed to advertise every fancy new and half untested medicine out there?

Like, take such and such drug to eliminate pimples, but possible side effects are hair loss, heart attack, brain bleeding, rectal leakage, miscarriage, loss of fingernails and toenails, blah blah...

A few reasons.

First, the alcohol industry has been a lot more sensitive to being perceived as selling to kids than the tobacco industry was. Because of it, there was never the push to ban advertising and conduct a mass media effort to control teen drinking as there was teen smoking.

Second, people still remember prohibition in the USA and how it was a failure. So, you've got a lot of people worried about a slippery slope in comparison to tobacco.

Third, the alcohol industry is far better at lobbying around specific items that would actually prevent consumption. For instance, alcoholic beverages don't need to show nutritional information. It will bend in a way that keeps access open.

I think about this with grocery stores. All you want is some cereal and there's a giant aisle of temptation people have to walk through

But we still sell cigarettes and we could still sell alcohol. Just don’t advertise it on tv and such.

As for addiction I disagree (I smoke) I stoped smoking for 2 years before my divorce. I never could stop drinking.

On top of that you (though it’s very difficult mentally” you could go from a pack a day to zero in one day without negative effects. I’ve done it once before.

Alcohol… I decided I needed to quit drinking a well ago, but I have to wait for a bed at a treatment center before I can quite. Otherwise I’ll die…

I think drinking is pretty dangerous.

“No body smoke occasionally “ paraphrasing of course.

Yes they absolutely do. “I only smoke when I drink “ is a very common thing. Lots of people only smoke when they get stressed.

Money. Cigarette ads were justly banned. The Marlboro Man and Joe Camel were iconic brands. The latter was designed specifically to encourage kids to smoke. As a kid, I thought Joe Camel was cool as shit. I didn't want to smoke because of him, but I liked his vibe. (It wasn't lost on me that his head was shaped like a penis; that was an intentional design choice, but he was still a cool dude.) That said, when I turned 18 and I tried smoking, I bought a pack of Camel filters, but that was because it was my mom's brand. I tried like two. Decided it wasn't for me. My mom's only beef was that I bought a hard pack — she always bought soft packs. I never got that. Anyway, she got 18 smokes for free, and even back when they were $1.50 a pack, that was a heck of a deal. (Fortunately she did not make me chain smoke the rest of them. I learned my lesson. Plus, I was 18.)

Big Booze

I've always found it weird that alcohol doesn't have warning labels. At least not where I live. I guess the risks are common knowledge but we can say the same for cigarettes

Alcohol is bad, but smoking is worse.
Smoking is both way more addictive and it is a bigger health risk.
It's rare to be a moderate smoker, generally you either don't smoke at all, or if you do you are a smoker, with numerous health risks.
With alcohol moderate use is the norm, and only excessive use will make you an alcoholic, resulting in numerous health risks.

AFAIK it has only lately become known that even moderate alcohol use is still a health risk. AFAIK mostly causing intestine cancer.
So instead we have campaigns warning against drinking to much, which was also how it started with cigarettes.

Lobbying. Big Liquor is in everyone’s pocket.

To be fair, as an alcoholic, alcohol ads had zero effect on my purchases.

Before I quit, the only thing that influenced my buying was the calculator app on my phone. For beer it was Millilitres per can times cans per block divided by ABV, divided by price. Higher number good.. For scotch and port it was easier.

I do think that on a phone or computer one ought to be able to opt out, like how shops who spam me in email say "do you want to opt out of mother's day emails?" Because they don't want to send them if your mom or kid just died, right?

But I don't know how you would do that without sort of registering as an alcoholic, which seems problematic.

I'm literally subscribed to an industry newsletter and research cocktails for the community here, and haven't seen very many ads for any sort of alcohol though? Are you really seeing them all the time?

People make money on it. People don't care enough to organize around stopping it.

🎵 No stems no seeds

That you don't need

Acapulco Gold is

[fffffffff!]

Baaaad aaasss weeeed! 🎶

Because when you make the drunks angry they start shooting at cops. Smokers do not do that as much.