It takes a lot to annoy us here particularly as we don’t currently work for a drinks advertiser but the National Substance Misuse Strategy Steering Committee call for a ban on sponsorship and advertising of alcohol products is annoying to say the least. And here is why:
To single out advertising and sponsorship is idiotic when you leave other influencers untouched.
Consider our favourite soaps Fair City, Corrie, Eastenders etc. hasn’t anyone noticed that everything revolves around the feckin pub…every social occasion… Christmas…Easter… etc. The mechanics in Corrie often go to the pub at lunchtime even though they are working with machinery!!!
And what about those endless gourmet food shows The Restaurant etc where wine is essential to every meal. The hard drinking portrayed in movies like Bridesmaids the Hangover etc.
BAN THEM ALL we say because that is the Irish government approach to everything the drinking equivalent of putting up Dangerous bend signs instead of straightening out the road. An Irish solution to a problem no one really wants to deal with.
Just a bunch of do-
gooders tinkering piously around the edges and causing huge job losses and damage to the already beleaguered Irish marketing community.