h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I work in a location where I frequently encounter people who have committed offences when drunk. They will often (apparantly) seek to boost their image by identifying SPECIFIC drinks as being what they have been drinking. Specifically:-

Stella - a lager about 5%, that is pretty much the same as other lagers (Fosters, Holsten and others)

Jack Daniels - a whiskey about 40% and just the same as most other spirits.

So how have these drinks acquired a reputation? Is it about image and wanting to appear 'hard'? (If so, what these people are demonstrating is that they can't cope with drinks for 'hard' people!

PP

JD is definitely associated with a rock'n'roll lifestyle.

And I believe there is or was a ward in a hospital in Newcastle-upon-tyne reserved exclusively for Newkie Broon alkies.

How old and/or well educated are these people?

I tell you a Red 1989 Cabernet Sauvingnon from the Bordeaux region is a darn site more than image...

That would be the 'Newcastle Brown' brewed in Tadcaster by John Smiths! Grrrrr!

PP

Whatever a rock and roll lifestyle might be, I don't think it's my then.

Typically 18 - 35. Male. Haven't done so well in school and early adulthood as they might have.

(My rock and roll is driven by IPA and Bitter or a nice pint of mixed).

PP

I have a lot to say about alcohol brand image, because I've had a lot of first hand experience with it.

I dropped out of college and went into the bar trade, in a proper drinkers pub. We didn't have doormen/bouncers because we didn't need them. Mostly it wasn't the sort of pub where idiots came in, but also we dealt with it ourselves, and there weren't as many idiots around back then. But I've had to deal with drunks, and in the end it was the increase in the number of mouthy drunks and the pitiful wages that encouraged me to get out of the trade.

The problem isn't the drink. It's the people. When people are intoxicated, whether it be through drink or drugs, they tend to loosen their inhibitions. This generally means that any restraint they'd normally have goes out the window. Including manners, especially those that we use to conduct ourselves in an "appropriate" social manner. Add to this that there's been a general decline in social manners over the years, and you get what we've got.

So on to alcohol brand image. Stella, infamously known as "wife beater". It was one of the first two main stream, strong continental lagers. At the time most lager was around 4% (Carling et al) and then all of a sudden, Stella and Kronenberg appeared at 5%. It doesn't seem much, but if you're used to going out and drinking seven or eight pints a night, you notice the difference. It was strong, it was cheap, and it gave you a buzz. And a headache.

This was also the same time that alcopops hit the market. Before Two Dogs and Hooch, if you drank vodka with a mixer you were seen as a bit of a "wuss", but alcopops made it "cool" and they didn't taste like spirits, they tasted like pop. All of a sudden, kids that wouldn't normally touch spirits for another ten or twenty years were necking the equivalent of seven or eight shots in a few hours.

Over the course of a couple of years, it became "cool" to drink, lots. Marketing for alcohol completely changed. It stopped targeting middle aged and old men, and started targeting younger people. People started drinking more, and what they started drinking became stronger.

A rather bad combination. Society wasn't ready for it, the "moral backbone" wasn't there to handle being drunk, and we ended up with a "binge drinking" culture.

Plus people don't seem to have the type of friends that they used to. When I started in bars, groups would come in and look out for each other. When it became a competition to see how much you could drink, anyone showing the effects of alcohol wasn't sat down and given a glass of water, they were mocked for weakness.

The solution to all this, well it's not driving the price of alcohol up. That's never worked. It's also not changing the law. It's always (well, for a very long time) been illegal in the UK to server anyone who you believe is drunk, or is buying alcohol for someone you believe is drunk. Enforcing that law would be a start.
But pubs rarely have landlords, they have managers and doorstaff. The managers rarely walk the floors to see if people are drunk, or getting drunk, so they're in no position to stop serving them until it's too late. And the bouncers just throw them out for them to move on to somewhere else that'll take their money.

It's a shame really. As anyone who's chatted with me knows, I love alcohol. Not as an alcoholic does, but the flavours and aromas that you can get. The pure pleasure in a good pint or spirit.

>The problem isn't the drink. It's the people.<

This is profoundly true. It's bloody people.

Not guns, not knives, not ethanol.....bloody people.

Lets get rid.

Oh but we will keep the nice ones.

"Plus people don't seem to have the type of friends that they used to."

I'm not sure that's the case. I think it's the fact that nobody learns how to drink anymore.

When we were 15/16, we'd get into one of the local pubs where a mate's dad drank. Everyone knew we were underage. We knew they knew, so we were on our best behaviour. One of us threw up, kicked off or acted the fool, and we'd all be out on our ears. And we knew it. So we had to learn how to either drink sensibly, or just be sensibly pissed. And all the other stuff that comes with drinking culture like not upsetting people, not getting drunk enough to be a liability in case you're spotted by a copper, and knowing when you get a round in.

As such, I can quite happily while away many an afternoon/evening/morning drinking beer in a pub, having learned the etiquette.

Unfortunately for my brother, the police cracked down on that sort of thing when he was about 15/16, so all his drinking was done in a park, or at a friend's house before their parents get home. And all that teaches you is to get as pissed as possible, as quickly as possible, before you're caught. And that means shots, alcopops, and a general devil-may-care attitude to booze. When you're on the park, if your mate's spewing up in a bush, you leave him to it so you don't get caught or covered in sick.

When that's taken inside, you get people who are out to get smashed as quickly as possible, and don't know how to moderate their behaviour.

It's like complaining that someone who's only ever eaten McDonalds in a bus shelter has no idea which fork to use at the ambassador's reception.

There is a school of thought which suggests supposedly alcohol-fueled bad behaviour is more to do with the culture of drinking rather than the drink itself. Compare our binge-drinking to other countries which drink equally heavily but don't then behave badly. If this is true, then it makes sense that brand image would very likely have an effect on the drinker.
It's all in the mind. Unless they drink a lighter ale, in which case it's all in the mild.

"all his drinking was done in a park, or at a friend's house before their parents get home. And all that teaches you is to get as pissed as possible, as quickly as possible, before you're caught."

That's pretty much how I learned to drink. Not good. Luckily I 'saw the light' as it were in my early 20s.

Has there been a subtle change in the purpose of drinking? When I was at school, anyone who threw up or disgraced themselves at a party was mocked mercilessly. Similarly, the hard drinking culture I encountered in the Navy revolved around drinking as much as humanly possible whilst remaining upright and coherent enough to walk past the gate guards.

Being able to hold your drink was the mark of a man.

However nowadays the objective of a night out *appears* to be to get paralytic, smashed and legless as quickly as humanly possible. I base this upon having worked only a few years ago in a city centre bar.

Or am I wrong?

I think it depends on the person. Throwing up on yourself marks you out as a lightweight in my circle of friends.

Being composed enough to get home before succumbing to the technicolour yawn, however, is to be applauded.

Having realised how much younger than me you are 603, I feel I should point out that it was 1996 when I was learning how to drink in the same way your brother did, so it's certainly not that recent a thing.

I must admit I take a very dim view of drunken throwing up in general. It's your body's way of telling you that you've done something bad to it so no matter how long to stave it off and how composed you remain if you imbibe enough to induce vomiting on even a semi-regular basis you're probably due a re-think of your drinking habits.

Oh, I'm only sick on Holts' beer nowadays. And even then, only after 9 or more pints.

I suppose I was 'taught how to drink' at home, where my dad and his siblings would spend evenings around Christmas/Easter with beer in hand, chatting and playing games. Nobody was rushing it in any way, it was a social thing - to relax people for the evening's enjoyment - and also for the taste: they drank ale, including my dad's home-brew, over which he takes considerable care in preparation.
They often woke up around 11 AM with thickish heads, but lunch was always late and the real entertainment didn't start until after 6 PM or so, anyway.
That's how I treat alcohol these days: I'll have a drink of something I like the taste of in my hand all night. Every now and then, I'll finish it and go get another. Over the course of an evening, I will get increasingly 'relaxed' and silly, and if the bars don't close first I'll eventually decide I've had enough and go home. As I grow older, this happens more and more.
I used to be sick pretty regularly on nights out, in bar toilets rather than on the street. These days, it tends to happen the next morning instead.

I haven't had an incident of alcohol induced sickess since 2001.

I might have had a couple of incidents of "gosh that was a lot more alcoholic than I thought" followed by comedy falling over though...

I originally started going into pubs to play darts, the alcohol was someting that happene to be there.

Oh andcontrary to opinion the best darts players might have a couple to loosen up, but they don't get drunk.

'a couple to looen up'?

Doesn't playing darts involve throwing a projectile over a short distance with incredible precision?

Does 'loosening up' enhance the abillity to perform tasks requiring top class hand eye co-ordination? I'm useless at darts. Perhaps I should try 'loosening up' before playing.

Or perhaps I'm too loose by the time that I think that throwing pointy things might be fun.

PP

To be honest - if you don't have the gift then you'll never get good enough to make it worth while, if you do have the gift, then it's practise that counts, and I mean throwing darts 8 hours a day.

Do you have any idea how boring that is ?