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CHAPTER 6
WE ARE KILLING OUR CHILDREN
Public relations and advertising firms have created a grand illusion about the wonder of drinking liquor. Be observant of the ads on television, billboards around town, or the displays at liquor stores and supermarkets. Notice how stacks of cases of beer are strategically placed where they intercept the most foot traffic. Observe the labels on the cartons celebrating whatever season we are in, because every season is a season to drink.
It is ironic that public opinion has swung so adamantly against cigarette smoking and the tobacco industry and yet still embraces fantasies about alcohol. Do you remember the old commercial for cigarettes produced during and after World War II? The star of the World Series is shown on a billboard, endorsing a brand of cigarette and claiming that it improved “his wind.” The rugged western start offers that his brand of smoke improves his appetite. And people bought it. In view of our present knowledge, they are ludicrous. Given the health facts of drinking alcohol, so are advertisements about liquor. We have simply traded one poison for another. And yet, the general public remains uneducated about the negative effects of alcohol. They lament a drunk wandering the streets and then are totally shocked when their annual routine blood test shows liver enzyme elevations from the three highballs they drank the night before their physical. They deplore the death toll from drunk drivers but are careful to drive the back roads home after a dinner party. They are mystified when they develop burning in their feet during their late sixties and the neurologist makes a diagnosis of “peripheral neuropathy,” most often caused by chronic excessive alcohol intake.
I found it most interesting to learn that Philip Morris Corporation, a name made infamous in class action lawsuits for tobacco related illness, owns Miller Brewing Company, producing some of the cleverest media campaigns ever for beer. The tobacco giant, fearing negative publicity from name recognition, asked its stockholders to approve a change to the Altria Group, an innocuous moniker for a mass killer who has simply changed weapons
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