Meanings

First published in Column 8 on the 26th February, 1992

Words have a funny way of shifting meaning when used by differing groups. In a news report this week the liquor industry claimed it is a reputable body. ‘We are the peak organisation working with alcohol and drug addiction and treatment.’ Check out that word, ‘reputable.’

In the same report, the Television Commercials ApprovalBureau rebukes the claim that a certain television ad depicts that association of drinking with water sports, driving and sexual or social success. Check out that word, ‘association.’

In the ad a group of youths are headed for the surf, but it takes longer than expected because they have to push their non-starting car. And when they get there, the surf is sulky and low. Meanwhile, an energetic young lady sits on the top of the car getting a sun-tan – I presume. It’s an ad for beer.

Look again at the TCAB’s rebuttal. Okay, there are no water sports, because the surf ain’t up. Even the best surfies would find this water flat. Okay, there’s no driving, because they have to push their car. Okay, there’s no sexual success. The young lady in question (who legally should have been over 25 when the ad was made but was in fact 23) isn’t seen drinking, and remains aloof on the roof, one might say.

However, we don’t have to see people doing something to have a strong suspicion about what they might do. Isn’t that what the advertising campaign by the police is  based on? The possibility that the person wandering around your neighbour’s property might not be looking at the flowers? (Unless, of course, the flowers are poppies.)

It’s only an assumption, but presumably these people in the ad would have gone surfing if the surf had been up. I suppose in these days of meditation, they might have sat and gazed adoringly at the waters. Presumably if the car hadn’t refused to start, they would have driven it. Or did they feel the exercise gained was a source of exercise to them, and that their sweaty bodies would ultimately delight in a dip in the briny?

I don’t think the young lady would have stayed on the top of the car for long either. In that sun, melanoma would be round the corner, if she hadn’t turned into a fried egg first. As for the sexual angle, we can infer little – that’s a relief – except to say that the young lady in question is certainly not a shy, retiring wallflower!

The makers of the ad said they had complied within the letter of the law. Sure, but many things got away with in the name of the law’s letter still have the spirit of lawlessness about them.

In a society that increasingly condemns drunken driving, why are we advertising booze on television at all, where it has the potential to be advertised most potently?

(And, to go off at a slight tangent, why, if we hate drunken driving so much, do pubs by law have to have such large areas of parking space? Do you seriously mean to tell me that each person leaves the pub with a sober chauffeur?)

I don’t think the Government really says what it means when it comes to liquor. They’re like a mother telling a child it can’t have any more sweets before it goes to bed, then popping one into the freshly-toothpasted mouth as the lights go out.

The only thing about the new advertising is that it’s blatant, instead of covert, as before. There’s a pitiful modicum of honesty in that.

And when are we going to hear from the feminists on the subject of alcohol. It seems to me that beer is regarded in the advertising world as a man’s drink, to the point of sexism. One of the new spate of ads confirms that alcohol takes pride of place over relationships: one country gent is reeling off to another the worth of his Auckland (wow!) girlfriend. In the end he decides he’d sooner stay down South. Why? Because the beer is better.

This kind of advertising goes a long way to improving relationships between the sexes. I don’t think.

At the end of the column (as opposed to the day), it’s all a matter of the meaning you give to worlds. When the liquor industry says it’s the peak organisation working with alcohol, check out the word, ‘working.’

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Regrettably I haven't been able to track this ad down online.