![]() Today, we have a full-on phenomenon, with breweries popping up everywhere and a nation turning its lonely livers to beer with actual flavor. In the 1980s, the popularity surge in craft beer was just a glimmer in a legion of home brewers’ eyes. To be fair, there was a similar campaign in the 1980s with “Crocodile Dundee” actor Paul Hogan and Foster’s beer, but clearly very little has changed in regards to sipping beer on camera. Yes, it’s scripted, but give ad agency Wieden + Kennedy New York credit for pushing an envelope most won’t even touch. posted an intriguing story about the online content if you want to read more, but Harris basically questions the director about why he can’t drink the beer in his hand. Fortunately, I don’t have a problem going all day without a beer.īut now we have the Emmy-winning Harris, née Doogie Howser, openly asking why it’s so taboo to drink on screen. This is how American society operates: condemn the sins, attack the symptoms and ignore the underlying issues (see also: the 1980s and “the War on Drugs”). Yes, alcoholism is tragic, but it is treated more like a crime than like a symptom to something underlying, something akin to a cry for help. It was amazing that something as simple as beer could be seen as such an evil. I spent years in corporate America, wherein if you have a drink of beer at lunch, you’ll get fired on the spot if caught. Meanwhile, pop divas and filmmakers alike push boundaries that would make our great-grandparents’ heads explode.Īnti-alcohol sentiment in America has been especially slow to evolve, by my eyes. Today, Penthouse, which was on the edge of sexual decency in the 1970s, seems mild. Playboy magazine was once the raciest publication on the market when it launched mid-century. If you remember, 100 years ago, a photograph of a woman whose body was covered only by a one-piece bathing suit could be considered pornographic. It’s human nature to require an ever-evolving level of stimulation in order to remain interested. Media – not to mention society – always, slowly but surely, pushes the envelope ever forward. ![]() the "Hays Code," a set of “guidelines” observed by Hollywood filmmakers developed near the end of Prohibition to regulate actions by characters on the big screen, from images of childbirth to “sex perversion” to - you guessed it – consumption of alcohol.īut the more I consider the Heineken commercial, and especially the online “behind-the-scenes” content that goes with it, the more I wonder if it represents a step toward change. It harkens to the Motion Picture Production Code of 1930, a.k.a. While there is no regulation on this by the Federal Communications Commission, broadcast networks have taken it upon themselves to avoid showing alcohol being consumed, ostensibly to avoid the ire of the religious right and to avoid pissing off advertisers who might not approve. ![]()
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