Activists are among those targeted as the next generation of alcohol consumers. One need only see the colorful, repeated glorification of wine and other trendy alcoholic beverages on social media to find plenty to invite a closer look. Fortunately, there is an organization doing just that.
Excerpts:
,…One small sector of society, the alcohol industry and its allies of the corporate consumption complex, has accumulated so much power to undermine, water-down, oppose and block and increasingly even roll-back health progress.
The alcohol industry has developed and marketed products to win over new populations: teens and young adults, women, and blacks and Latinos,” writes N. Freudenberg in Lethal But Legal.
As a consequence, people in these groups are now facing increasing health and social problems that previously were not an issue.
Women and girls: Alcohol Marketing often objectifies and sexualizes women, portraying women as tools, perpetuating gender stereotypes and inequality.
Nearly 1 in 5 advertisement occurrences targeting youth in the USA contained sexual connotations or sexual objectification.
Young people: The content of alcohol ads in magazines is more likely to violate industry guidelines if the advertisement appears in a magazine with sizable youth readership.
Ads in magazines with a substantial youth readership (at least 15%) frequently showed alcohol being consumed in an irresponsible manner.
Big Alcohol increasingly uses online games that feature alcohol brands, secret parties with online invitations, Facebook and other social media to target youth.
Children: The alcohol industry starts early to train people to like alcohol….
.. There’s an obvious conflict of interest between the alcohol industry and public health objectives: alcohol harm needs to decrease on [the] population level for better public health. But the alcohol industry wants more alcohol consumption, not less. Big Alcohol’s thirst for profits opposes societies’ objectives to improve health and well-being.
Alcohol industry-favorable propaganda is increasing with the posting of over 3500 ‘Industry Actions to Reduce Harmful Drinking’ that are designed to demonstrate Big Alcohol’s support of the WHO Global Alcohol Strategy. The problem is that the public health community’s Statement of Concern and preliminary research on the ‘Industry Actions’ demonstrates that not only are they mostly trivial, but in some cases potentially harmful to public health (Babor et al., 2013; Babor and Robaina, 2013; Babor, Robaina and Brown, unpublished).”
A POLITICAL MATTER
It’s time to rethink our stress relief strategies– and the ways we are complicit in alcohol addiction– in these times of our Resistance. Middle-class european-heritage people are relatively new targets of the drivers of addiction profiteering, and we lack generational innate suspicion. Plus, our white supremist conditioning leads us to assume that we can hold power over products designed to addict. But we know that we can’t actually control alcohol. We can only control our behavior.
Who is leading The Resistance? Women. Who is joking about alcohol? Women.
Women’s bodies are particularly vulnerable to alcohol, and women’s adiction levels have already been rising .
Unfortunately, studies have demonstrated that one of the first effects of drinking is the loss of accurate self-observation: alcohol tells us we’re fine– when we’re not. This effect is already apparent after just two drinks– blood alcohol is not in the DUI range but reflexes and judgment are already measurably impaired, while we loudly and defensively insist that we’re fine.
How many women have to become actual addicts to disable The Resistsance? (In a time when every vote matters, how many sharp minds can we do without?)
If you’re already using alcohol for stress relief, or posting “funny” drinking memes, you’ve already unconsciously colluded with Big Alcohol to your own detriment and to the dtreiment of The Resistance. We need to be sharp in these times. Not numbed out or crashed into a ditch, literally or figuratively. It’s time to rethink what we do. If more than a glass or two of wine with dinner is your thing– please explore non-addictive stress relief. ESPECIALLY if you find yourself drinking alone.
The Presbytera Speaks and Sings 