NBC has announced that it will begin airing hard liquor ads. While they will be shown only after 9pm and have several other restrictions placed on them, is this a good idea?

Is NBC being incredibly irresponsible and doing this only as a desperate attempt to generate revenue or can it be argued that someone can become an alcoholic on beer just as well as whisky and that if it is OK to show beer ads, why not liquor ads?

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001

Answers

I thinf beer ads are far worse (and more damaging) than anything they'll come up with for Ketel One.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001

I think that liquor ads will be a lot less tacky than the beer ads, for sure.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001

I'm hoping the new ads will convince me to go get liquored up, because I've earned it.

Ironically, if the ads show after 9:00, they won't inspire too many impulse buys here in retarded Connecticut, where the blue laws are alive and well. Not only can you not buy booze after 8:00 pm, but they put up curtains and shutters in the grocery store. That's right, you're not even allowed to look at the booze! The mere sight of it might send you into a frenzy!

So yeah, bring on the ads. I'll watch them and weep...

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001

I don't think there's much difference. I don't watch beer ads and think, "Hmmm. I'll have a beer!", so I can't see myself watching a Southern Comfort ad and thinking, "Hmmm. I'll have a Southern Comfort!"

Who am I kidding? Yes I will. Bring 'em on!

Rob: I tole you to move back to Texas. They cover the liquor UP? That is no way to live. Poor, sad liquor. I bet it's dark in there.

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001

Usually the big issue on these sorts of Sin Commercials (alcohol, cigs) is, of course, "but what about the CHILDREN!"

I really don't see pre-teens even caring about the liquor ads if they are up watching TV after 9 anyway.

And the teenagers? Even if the Southern Comfort ad makes them want it they still have to get it. Under-age kids buying alcohol isn't suddenly going to get easier just because they see it on TV.

And it's definitely just as easy for some to be an alcoholic on beer and wine as hard liquor. Speaking for those amongst us who hate beer and wine but love some hard liquor I say bring it on!

-- Anonymous, December 14, 2001

Over here in SoCal, they've got a liquor aisle at the grocery store, open all hours! I've never seen that before.

Advertising makes the world go 'round. I wish George Bush would stop pimping the "poor" airlines and encourage more ad production. If American Airlines, God love 'em for the extra legroom, wants to buy an airline they can't afford (TWA), let 'em go under. Southwest isn't in trouble for such a decision, in fact, I understand they're in the black. Why should American survive on federal bail-out cash for their outright greed? Meanwhile, my freelance production people in TEXAS are starving, dying and divorcing, George. Come on!

Bring on the liquor ads.

-- Anonymous, December 17, 2001

Hi, Loflin. I don't know you but I love you.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

Ha! You can buy alkyhall in your grocery stores? Don't make me laugh.

We can't buy the hard alcohol unless it's from a state store, which does, in fact, close at like 6pm. Ok, I'm kidding, it's 9. Still ridiculous.

Beer? More than a sixpack, must be from a beer distributer. Sixpack, from a bar. There is no such thing as getting beer in a grocery-type store here. Oh no.

The first time I saw beer and wine in a grocery store, I was 13 and I almost fell over I was so shocked. Pennsylvania sucks.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

The only good thing about living in Virginia is that you can beer and wine at a grocery store, 7-11, CVS ... pretty much anywhere. It's the greatest thing ever.

But to get hard liquor you have to go to an actual liquor store.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

Y'all. In Ohio you can buy alcohol in grocery stores. On Sunday afternoon.

Or you can just go to the drive thru. Not a drive UP a drive thru. Pull into the building. Tell the college kid your alcohol, tabacco and snack needs. Give him money through the window. He'll hand it through the window or put it in the back seat or the trunk. You never leave your car in the wind or the rain or the sun or weather of any kind for that matter.

Drive thrus are one of the few things I will enjoy about moving back to Ohio.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

Damn, Slickery beat me to it.

What's up with Pennsylvanians, man?

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

Emily doesn't have this luxury, but when I was at school we solved our liquor needs by driving to Delaware, the Friendly Tax-Free State.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

Word, Em. And I thought Nebraska was bad, making me have to drive to Iowa to get beer after 1:00 AM. I got here and couldn't find the beer. Y'all know I cried a river.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

Yeah, the drive thru beer thing in Ohio kinda weirds me out. It seems to go against all the laws of nature I had previously understood. It would be like if the ocean suddenly was freshwater and drinkable. Imagine the shock - that was me when I first saw the drive thru beer/tobacco/snack-o-rama in Ohio.

Well, there was that shock and the jealousy, too. I like, have to plan when I'm going to drink. Irritation, that.

I just got back from WalMart in West Virginia (where my mom lives now, wheeeoooo! There's a gated trailer park community down the street, I kid you not. My mom's house is nice, though, and right on the Potomac. I can see it right now, in fact. I always feel like I have to explain all of that when I say that my mom lives in WV. The shame.) and they had beer and wine. In a WalMart. Shocking, that. I didn't want to attract too much attention, but I walked down the aisle and quietly snickered at the forties of Old E.

-- Anonymous, December 18, 2001

Yeah. The drive through liquor places in Ohio totally creeped me out. I've never used one...yet.

Here in Wisconsin, home sweet home, you can't buy anything after 9PM. NINE PM!! The other night, I was driving home and thinking, man, it sure would be nice to stop and get some Stoli. What time was it? 9:15. Damn them all.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Dloflin, you're not Dave Loflin from MIT, are you?

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

hannah - no, he isn't. But, e-mail him, because he just might know that guy...

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

My most favorite thing about Louisiana is drive through daquiri shops. Yes, we have open-container laws. These are circumvented by putting a strip of scotch tape across the plastic lid of the styrofoam cup your daquiri goodness is in.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Oh, y'all. I miss Daiquiri Palace so, so much. 20 oz. of pina colada goodness? Please drive through.

It's the first place I went the day I turned 18.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

The best thing about Louisiana? K&B Vodka. Oh, how I wish I had stocked up before K&B changed to Rite-Aid. What better stocking stuffer than K&B liquor?

In Georgia, you cannot buy anything alcoholic on a Sunday. Also, if you are alone in a restaurant, you are not allowed to order a pitcher. For that, two people must be at the table.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Heh. My first legal liquor was purchased at K&B. God bless that purple logo. I miss it.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

Okay, drive up daiquiri so beats drive thru. Well, except for the constant fear I would have of drunk drivers. At least the drive-thru people make you open it yourself.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001

I went to that Daiquiri place too. YUM!

Sometimes you gotta LOVE Louisiana.

-- Anonymous, December 19, 2001