Sometimes less is more.  I saw the Jim Beam’s “Devil’s Cut” bourbon commercial in which the gimmick is that they have devised a way to extract bourbon from the saturated wood.   I wondered what possessed them to try to extract the bourbon from the wood.  I suppose that it’s supposed signify the degree of potency, aroma or woody flavor.  But who is to say that that would make the bourbon taste better? On the part of the manufacturers, this may be a business-saving measure, necessary for the sustenance of their enterprise; or on the more likely end, it’s one more way to sell a product to people by making them think it is something they have been missing [and therefore needing] all the while.  Next, in considering the potency factor, it’s called The Devil’s Cut. The title is a blatant acknowledgement, if not association with the potential negative effects of alcohol.

There is Belvedere vodka commercial that says, there are only 93 summer nights–shows people with clear liquid in glasses, toasting with a bottle of Belvedere between them at which time the narrator continues provocatively: make each one count.   It would seem as though this commercial condones, if not encourages drinking vodka on a daily basis, notwithstanding the long term and short term affects of alcohol use, abuse, and overdose.  Even if you do not abuse alcohol–perhaps you have one drink per day for 30 years, there is a risk of dependency.  Of course, most people do not use alcohol in such moderation over extended time.  Most people that have had alcohol, have found themselves accidentally drunk and subsequently embarrassed.  With alcohol there is risk of overdose, risky behavior, poor/lapse in judgment, fighting, erratic or exaggerated emotions, incidence of physical, sexual or mental abuse, rape, domestic violence, black outs, life-altering consequences, hangover, vomiting, hepatitis, pancreatitis, cirrhosis, gout, high blood pressure, jaundice, vitamin deficiency, ascites, encephalopathy, seizures, delirium tremens, tremors and death (pardon me if I’ve left out something)

That said, when it comes to what is being marketed, which is implicitly acceptable, I am disappointed that there are those that can ignore all the aforementioned in the defense of the War on Drugs and other determinations made be the FDA, ATF and for that matter the NRA and all the other bureaucratic agencies on the pay roll behind the scenes unaffected by and unyielding to the laws they impose.

what they’re selling


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