Originally Posted: Monday, November 26, 2007

Title: Not so funny anymore

Everyone who knows me knows I am a big sports fan. As the NFL season starts getting down to the last few weeks of the regular season it seems all the better. There's nothing quite like watching a rivalry game or watching a team trying to make the playoffs. And what's better than watching the Steelers win against the Cleveland Clowns…errr, Browns – excuse me.

However, the one thing that annoys me about watching sports on TV is the insane amount of commercials. If you've ever watched a game on TV you know there are a large amount of commercials for alcohol during each and every game. Budweiser and other beer makers are known for their funny and creative commercials. I've laughed at many alcohol commercials. Lately, however, I've started to be more and more annoyed by these commercials.

So many of their commercials are filled with good looking, young men and women having a good time while enjoying one of their alcoholic beverages. They have a great way of making alcohol look like a drink for a fun occasion and making alcohol seem like it's for the "cool" people of the world. Alcohol seems funny when you are laughing at their commercials.

Why doesn't Budweiser or another beer company show a commercial of a guy with a big beer belly chugging down another drink at the bar while trying to "drown his sorrows"? Or why don't they show one of these situations in their ads…………

- A man whose wife and children left him because he spends every night drinking.
- A family who is going hungry because all the family income is spent on alcohol.
- The tears of a young girl who was just abused by her drunken mother.
- The reaction of a mother who just found out her son was killed by a drunk driver.
- The face of the man who wakes up from his drunken stupor to find out he lashed out and hit the wife he loves while he was drunk.
- The fear in the face of a young boy who is scared of his drunken father.

Or better yet maybe they should get the families together of the 16,885 people who were killed by a drunk driver in 2005. I'm sure the family of these people would be glad to tell you how "cool and fun" it is to drink if they can stop crying long enough. And why doesn't the alcohol company ever mention the approximately three million violent crimes (including rapes and sexual assaults; robberies; and aggravated and simple assaults) that occur each year in which the victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of the offense? I guess that wouldn't be too funny now, would it?

I know many people reading my blog will say, "I only drink responsibly" and "I would never do 'anything like that'". Perhaps that is the case, but I don't ever want to take that chance. I also don't ever want to give one penny to a company that has helped destroy some many lives.

I've seen and laughed at countless beer commercials but when I start looking at the statistics they just don't seem as funny anymore.