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Jewish World Review Dec. 28, 2001 / 13 Teves, 5762

Bill Press

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Consumer Reports


Don't be fooled by those 'noble' alcohol ads on NBC


http://www.NewsAndOpinion.com -- WARNING, couch potatoes. Breaking with a 50-year ban self-imposed by all the networks, NBC has started airing prime-time ads for hard liquor: gin, vodka, scotch, bourbon … name your favorite poison.

The first one - which appeared Dec. 15 on "Saturday Night Live" - is deceptive. It doesn't talk about drinking at all. In fact, it talks about not drinking. The camera pans four empty glasses in front of a bottle of Smirnoff's vodka. Then a hand turns over one glass and drops a set of car keys on the table while the announcer says: "Select a designated driver. From your friends at Smirnoff's."

Don't be fooled. These aren't the kind of commercials the liquor industry wants to run. These are only the "drink responsibly" messages the industry agreed to air, for four months only, as a price for running the hard stuff later. Their primary goal is to sell booze, not to preach public safety. As Peter Cressey, president of the Distilled Spirits Council of the United States, admitted to me on "Crossfire": "We wish to sell more spirits."

Now, I admit, I'm as fond of a drink as anybody. Make mine a Bombay Safire martini. Dry. Straight up, please. With an extra olive. But I don't think NBC could have come up with a worse idea at a worse time.

With Americans still reeling from the shock of terrorist attacks against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, hundreds of thousands of workers still without jobs and the normal stress of holiday madness, there are already signs that alcohol consumption is growing. Since Sept. 11, the demand for substance abuse treatment has risen by 10 to 12 percent nationwide. Relapse rates for recovering alcoholics are up. NBC is only adding to the problem.

Especially among teen-agers. Most people don't realize it but, according to Mothers Against Drunk Driving, alcohol overdose is the number-one killer of young people. It kills six and a half times more of the young than all other illicit drugs combined. And it also contributes to the other three leading causes of death among teens: suicide, homicide and automobile accidents. Last year, for the first time in 15 years, according to MADD, we saw an increase in the number of auto fatalities among teen-age drunk drivers.

No wonder the American Medical Association rushed to condemn the airing of hard liquor ads: "The decision by NBC to accept advertising for liquor is shockingly irresponsible and should be reversed immediately. It is obvious that the network is putting its desire for profit far above the health of our nation - especially young people, who develop many of their ideas and expectations about alcohol from watching TV."

Anticipating public outcry, NBC issued a two-page set of guidelines for airing of the alcohol ads. They are nothing but a ludicrous attempt to sugarcoat a dangerous product. Instead of making NBC look more responsible, they make the network look more devious.

Guideline No. 5, for example, reads: "On-camera consumption may not be represented." In other words, you would never show a commercial for cereal without showing kids eating it, or a commercial for eyeglasses without someone wearing them, but they will show commercials for whiskey without anyone drinking it. Who's kidding whom? What's the whiskey supposed to be for? Watering the plants?

Or try on Guideline No. 1 for size: "To insure that advertising for distilled alcohol products is clearly and unambiguously directed to adult consumers ... advertising will be limited to telecast between the hours of 9 and 11 p.m. EST and during the 'Tonight Show.'" Talk about meaningless palaver. Nine o'clock on the East Coast, of course, is only 6 o'clock on the West. But the guideline presumes that America's teen-agers are all snuggled in their beds by 9 p.m. and not still up watching TV. When was this written? In 1950?

No matter how hard it tries, there is simply no way for NBC to justify or explain its decision to sell time to the liquor industry, except for what it is: pure greed. Their costs are going up. Covering the war is expensive. They just agreed to pay Katie Couric $65 million. They have to raise the money somehow. So start advertising booze. Public health and safety be damned.

Just what we need for the holidays: Jack Daniels on television.



Bill Press is co-host of CNN's "Crossfire" and author of the newly published book "Spin This!" Comment by clicking here.

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