An A-Chip In Every Television!

New at Reason: Should distillers be forbidden to advertise to kids, even accidentally? Jacob Sullum sips an alcopop and thinks on it.

Comments

[Warren]

"a large percentage of college youth report they do not have to pay anything for alcohol"

I'm usually a big fan of Jacob's stuff, but that line strikes me a just stupid. I'm in agreement with most of the article, but that claim is so outrageous (in a completely non-credible on the face of it, sort of way) that it ruins the whole thing for me. Where is this school where booze is provided free of charge?

[Citizen]

Warren - somebody is paying for it, but usually not the partygoers. As underage freshmen hit frat row this weekend or their older brother's house party or where ever, they're not being charged or IDed at the door.

The line says "college youth" - I'm assuming that youth referes to the underage underclassmen. Most of these kids aren't paying for booze - as opposed to using fake IDs.

[jon b.]

I especially liked the part of the story where the anti-alcohol spokesman said it was impossible to market to young legal drinkers and not scattershot some 16-18 year olds. Leads me to think he either wants the impossible or is leading up to an outright ban on ETOH adverts.

[nm156]

Curiosity is a natural thing. Teens go for alcohol because it is still considered taboo. My parents eliminated the mystery for me when I was 15. I enjoy a drink, always have. But it's never been a big deal to me. Good parenting goes a long way to correcting many of these so-called problems.

[Kevin Carson]

Blackjacks, rum-and-cokes and 7&7s are a lot cheaper than these "alcopop" malt drinks, anyway. That's the way it was done back before Zima was invented. So what next, an age limit for buying 2-liter bottles of soft drinks?

[joe]

Who would you rather have giving your daughter her first beer: her older cousin, when she's 16, or the guys at the frat house a year and a half later?

[Justin Barstow]

I'm beginning to think that the only way to stop these so called do gooders who support the war on drugs and want to exand it to alcohol is to tar them with the brush that they are profiting from the black market that results.

It is only REASONable to assume that anyone who supports and trys to expand policies which are so detremental to our nation and especially poor folks must be evil profiteering bastards.

[Mr. Nice Guy]

Forgive me for bringing up this well-worn point, but we can draft a 18-year-old against his will, put a rifle in his hands, and have him kill, but he can't buy a f***ing beer?

And what's with this "alcopop" label? Does this mean that all alcoholic beverages need to be bitter-tasting in order to be considered "adult"?

Prohibition is alive and well. It's too bad, as great as this country is, that we can't evolve past the puritans.

[David2]

This is pretty much the standard line for moralists, though. They operate on the belief that EVERYTHING is marketed towards kids. Just look at all of the outrage over anime and adult-oriented cartoons. From "Heavy Metal - The Movie" to Spike TV's "Stripperella", the moralists throw screaming fits because they believe that this stuff is marketed towards kids JUST BECAUSE it's in cartoon format. It's just a thin facade to hide their own personal disgust over the subject matter.

[Sean]

I hate the malternatives as much as the next serious drinker (all taste like Zima to me), but these people are friggin' retarded for trying to ban them. I get to go to the Society for Neuroscience conference each year (New Orleans this year, woohoo). I love finding the pricks who put out these reports in social situations down there. When they have a drink in hand there's little they can say when you give them an earful. Not sure it helps anything, but it sure is fun.

[Russ]

Since the drinking age in Louisiana is only 18, doesn't that make it perfectly appropriate to advertise to the 18 - 20 market segment?

Every single one of them seems to peform the annual hajj to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.