Whatever happened to thinking for yourself?
Why is it that every time you see an advertisement, billboard, website or poster for booze, they have to have those three, deeply annoying words after them:
Please Enjoy Responsibly
It’s everywhere now: watch the UEFA Champion’s League tonight (note my correct use of the apostrophe, which UEFA seem unwilling to use, we’ll come back to that another time) and you’ll see a Heineken advert at the ground which boldly says: Please Enjoy Responsibly. Which given that the ground will be booze-free within sight of the pitch and the fans will have been drinking before hand, renders the advert rather pointless. It’s unnecessary and it’s patronizing.
I’m sorry, how different nations drink alcohol is one of the great cultural markers of the human race. In the UK, binge drinking, for better or worse (and I’m not advocating it), is part of the national psyche and those three words aren’t going to change things. Here’s an Andrew true fact: The fairly restrictive licencing laws which existed here in the UK up until the ’80s (pubs open from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., then 7 p.m. ’til 11 p.m., 10.30 p.m. on a Sunday) were a response to fears about drunk workers in munition factories during World War 1. Beer + TNT, great mix. Andrew Bonus fact: General Elections are held in the UK on a Thursday as it was felt that ‘the working man’ on a weekly wage would have no money to go the pub and would instead be available (and sober enough) to vote. If the election was on a Friday, who would have known what could have happened? History depended upon not going down the pub.
Anyhow, I digress. The reason why ‘Please Enjoy Responsibly’ gets my back up is that it isn’t grounded in any genuine duty of care on the part of the brewers, distillers and vintners – they want you to buy lots of their stuff. But – hey – if you fall down drunk and hurt yourself, or crash your car and kill someone while DUI, no problemo for them: they told you to ‘Enjoy Responsibly’.
Personal responsibility should have nothing to do with some crappy catch-all phrase dreamt-up by a lawyer, they shouldn’t need to use it and it really isn’t effective or based in a sense of welfare for the consumer, only for the brewers/distillers/vintners share price
My argument is that, if you want people to behave like adults, treat them like adults.
And if a patronizing phrase like ‘Please Enjoy Responsibly’, doesn’t make people want to go out on the lash/the piss, I don’t know what will. It is corporate lawyer speak. Grrr…
I’m off down the pub…
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1. October 2008 - 19:10 Uhr
amen. it’s big brother crap to be honest.
1. October 2008 - 22:25 Uhr
I think sadly, this whole world has been completely sanitized. The powers that be try to keep us from hurting ourselves, keep us from smoking, using drugs that aren’t even dangerous and act just like hypercritical parents. It’s definitely the nanny state we’ve heard so much about over the years. Corporations grasp at every straw they can to keep from being implicated in any questionable situation. The legal game is more like a shell game…smoke and mirrors and footnotes and signatures. I had to sign a contract for cable recently. The disclaimer from the company was two pages long. Keep in mind that all they have to do is make sure I have service. That’s it.
So they have two pages of legal rights and I have none. THEY didn’t have to sight a terms and conditions contract from ME. Why should I of them?
Their rights: 2 pages of obscure bullshit. My rights? Pay or be disconnected.
And this is typical now any time you deal with a huge corporation. They legally get every single right an then some and you have nothing but the bill at the end of the month.
You can’t smoke anywhere. People have been taught to believe that inhaling a hint of second hand smoke will kill them. Yet they microwave and nuke the shit out of their food, load up on some of the deadliest preservatives and additives in food that it’ll embalm them eventually. Breath deep breaths of some of the most polluted air the world has ever seen….
The bottom line I think is that if you have a world of dumb, gullible people, you end up in world that’s run by dumber people who want as much power and red tape as they can possibly muster. Control, control, control. Power, power, power.
I’m really glad that I never had any kids at this point. Honestly. I cannot even begin to fathom how this world is going to play out in the next 10 years.
We had it right at one point….or very close to it. And now we’re on the most slippery slope in the history of existence. It’s mindnumbing in the U.S. how quickly things have gone from bad to worse in the past 8 years.
What do we get? People demonstrating in the street, demanding power to the people back? Calling for an end to useless wars? Calling for health care? Demanding to not be held responsible for the reckless greed and corruption of the elite few?
Nope.
They want more. More of the same for the most part. They’re fighting for it, even. Why?
They’re scared as shit. They’re cowards. They’re afraid to try a different direction. Afraid something bad might happen to them.
We used to pride ourselves on bravery and courage and now the offspring of that courage and bravery is fear and complacency.
Nothing will change. It’ll keep going, corporations will have more power, there will be more laws regulating people, telling them what they can’t do and telling them to fall in line.
Americans will embrace it. Wait and see. When the government does everything for you, tells you how to live, what you can do and what you can’t do, it makes life easier.
I won’t debate that. But it makes life miserable, too.
We fill up our prisons with petty drug users past capacity, cops are out chasing skateboarders, tazing people for no particular reason other than the fact that they ‘can,’ and the biggest heist in the history of our existence is taking place in the light of day, in front of the media, the people and the rest of the world.
Where’s our protection now?
I feel your frustration. And I see the absurdity in a lot that’s around me. Back in a time when writers and artists could open peoples’ eyes to this stuff, make a change and bring it into light, people no longer read and think that art is the splatter of ink on their t-shirt.
It’s sad. I’m glad I’m getting older to be quite frank. I don’t think I could take being 20 years old right now and staring down the barrel of 50+ more years of this bullshit.
Light up, drink up, do whatever keeps you sane. It’s a tough world to navigate and process these days. We’re going to need every substance we can get our hands on by the time it crests.
‘t
2. October 2008 - 18:47 Uhr
Don’t forget that the Champion’s league is a complete misnomer anyway. Champions? Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal? That’s just the English teams.
The whole tournament is built on the premise that we want to see the best teams in Europe compete against each other. Then UEFA do their utmost to get those ‘unfashionable’ teams out early on so we can see the same old crap we see year-in year-out.
When two English clubs met in the European Cup (proper name, no need for apostrophes) like Liverpool and Forest did in the 70s it was an event. One was the defending champion the other the League Champions. Now they meet all too often and it’s bloody dull. Well done to the Romanians of Cluj for breaking into the group stages. Believe me when I say you weren’t meant to make it…
As for the main thrust of your post, Andrew, I do agree. I am aware of the website drinkware.com but I have never, and will never visit it. Who needs to be preached at. Anyway, I’m off home to watch Pompey and drink beer while I do it.
3. October 2008 - 20:32 Uhr
great post. Yes, “drink responsibility” isn’t from a genuine duty of care and yes, it’s to protect their asses. But can you blame them? I’m generally not a corporate advocate but, on this issue I think the public needs to take some responsibility for how corporations have decided to cover their asses. Let’s not forget that these corporation had to go through many litigation before they started implementing these catch all phrases. It was because they got sued and taken to court, that they implement these things. Society has changed, we’ve all become more willing to go to court. I’m all up for people getting high, drunk, or whatever they want to do, but the problem is, these same people that get drunk, high, and what not, end up hurting themselves and then suing the companies. Where’s the “justice” in that? Is that acting like a responsible adult - are these people taking responsibility for their actions?
What’s worse is that when these people are stoned they don’t only hurt (or interfere) their own lives, they often hurt and interfere with people that have nothing to do with them. I’m sure you’ve been on the tube when people are throwing up or when they’re trying to start a fight - they’re not exactly being adults are they? I don’t see them taking responsibility for their actions, do they go back and clean the tube and how exactly do they take responsibility for beating up someone?
If you think about it, these companies are acting like adults - they’re making decision that will protect themselves, they’re watching out for their well-being.
In a perfect world, people would be able to do whatever they wish - but the long unanswered question is, what happens when interest conflict?
In terms of companies making you sign these form which protects them - there is laws (both written and in common law) that protect the individual. Yes, you sign it but that doesn’t automatically mean that you wave your rights - gross negligence will rarely be allowed to take place, regardless of if you signed - you can never agree to be subjected to gross negligence .