Happy Beer-thday To You!
02/02/07 23:35
All over the
media these days are ads telling us that lashing away
to excess at the dhrink is bad for us, as if we
didn't know. But it's a cultural thing. If we have
something to celebrate, we get locked. A birthday, a
promotion, a win for our team, the fact that it's
Friday.
This was brought home to me this week, when I was buying a birthday card for someone who was about to celebrate his 40th. The same lad has had some serious issues with the electric soup over the years, but thankfully is coming out on top now. Nearly every card I saw in the shop had a reference to alcohol on it. Some were subtle, with a couple of Champagne glasses on the front, to others that had inscriptions like "Bet you'll have a hangover after your birthday!"
That's the challenge for the anti-drunkenness campaigns. You don't have to get blattered to celebrate something.
This was brought home to me this week, when I was buying a birthday card for someone who was about to celebrate his 40th. The same lad has had some serious issues with the electric soup over the years, but thankfully is coming out on top now. Nearly every card I saw in the shop had a reference to alcohol on it. Some were subtle, with a couple of Champagne glasses on the front, to others that had inscriptions like "Bet you'll have a hangover after your birthday!"
That's the challenge for the anti-drunkenness campaigns. You don't have to get blattered to celebrate something.