I just want to clear up a few things that may be offensive or seem like I am challenging the whole aspect of the class. What I want to be able to do is show how unethical advertising affects areas beyond sex, love and romance in advertisements. For instance, every commercial on television shows people bonding and having great times while drinking alcohol. You can check out the Coors Light commercials when everybody is having a shitty day and all of a sudden a huge F-ing train comes by and gives beer; everyone is happy. Another commercial involves a hot night and a six-pack of Smirnoff Ice's and everyone getting half naked while having a good time. As a recovering alcoholic, I see the ill effects that alcohol can cause on a person and a family. The outcomes of alcohol abuse are not fun but the consequences of binge drinking are never shown. How can the government make it illegal to advertising Cigarettes on commercial and not alcohol?
The answer may seem easy and its not that alcohol does not cause cancer like smoking. To me the reason seems clear, advertisers and marketers do not give a shit. The more effective the advertising campaigns the more the commericials will be viewed. We cannot drive anywhere without listening to ads or viewing big ass billboards about alcohol or tobacco. It is culturally acceptable to drink and we glamorize these behaviors due to all the bullshit movies and advertising we are exposed to. Looking at the complete picture, alcohol abuse and cancer due to tabacco is just fine in the minds of these immoral jerk offs but the trying to get younger people addicted to these substances is downright bullshit. My goal of this blog was not to compare objectifying women and the consequences to society with the consequences of our current advertising practices, but to shed light on other immoral practices involved in marketing.
I really enjoyed this post because you just summed up what we all know to be true but no one does anything about. I think more people complain about objectifying women than the ramifications of other potentially dangerous activities that advertisers promote. Not that objectifying women isn’t horrible, being a woman I find that it is a dated stereotype that needs to be modified. However, unlike advertisements for alcohol and tobacco, I don’t think it can be stopped. I mean how simple would it be to take beer commercials off tv and reduce the amount of advertisements for alcohol that are in magazines? And my ultimate question that I ask myself whenever I see an advertisement for alcohol, “who has the right to say that alcohol consumption isn’t dangerous?” Sure tobacco products can cause cancer, but excess alcohol consumption can cause liver damage. I think people, and advertisers don’t think about this concept too much because drinking alcohol has become such a focal part of our society. I mean really, when and why did it become acceptable to have an alcohol advertisement in a fashion magazine? And is that even necessary? A few years ago the government cracked down on tobacco consumption in public buildings and even restricted the amount of tobacco advertisements that can be put in magazines. There is even that great surgeon general’s warning on the side of a pack of cigarettes that says if you stop smoking you will avoid risks to your health. Alcohol advertisements to this to a degree by putting at the end of their commercials drink responsively. But let’s just conclude that not many people pay attention to these warnings because lots of people still smoke and lots of people drive drunk or do other equally dangerous things. I think it would be a huge benefit to our culture to just simply put a cap on how many alcohol commercials can be shown on tv and how many can be shown in magazines. I also think that it would be a great help if alcohol companies didn’t promote fun but potentially dangerous activities in their ads. For instance the Smirnoff commercial you discussed. Looks like tons of fun to take large plastic like stuff and lay it on the ground with the sprinklers on, it would be like a huge slip and slide, but really, advertising this in connection with alcohol? Not the best idea ever. Maybe alcohol commercials are the reason why people do incredibly unsafe things while drinking?
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