With Family Day coming up on February 18, it
gives us time to reflect on family.
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and can often include relatives
as well as friends. Regardless of our family make up, we learn a lot about life
from our families. We learn practical
things as well as more subtle or unspoken things that become part of our cultural
experience. How we view alcohol is one of
those things where actions speak louder than words.
Alcohol is a legal drug that is often part of
family dinners, celebrations, sporting events and other gatherings. Having a beer or a glass of wine can appear
to be as harmless as having a glass of water, with little need for discussion
or teaching. Through the ages, children
have grown up in environments where they have been exposed to alcohol; this is
nothing new. However, for the most part there
was little exposure to alcohol outside of family and social gatherings. Today, a child’s “education” about alcohol
more often than not comes from alcohol advertising and promotion, the movies,
TV, and alcohol sponsorship of sporting events such as the Olympics and the
Super Bowl (see related blog
post). There
is a need to have a conversation about how alcohol is consumed near children, how
it is advertised and the cultural norms that have been created surrounding its
use.
Parents play an important role in countering
the “exciting and consequence free” alcohol promotion that children are exposed
to. Kids mimic and learn from what they
see and hear. How we consume alcohol and
how we talk about alcohol in front of our children will provide them with a
basis for how they treat alcohol later. These
actions can help ensure that alcohol is only a part of our good times.
Upcoming Event
On Tuesday, March 5th, 2013 @ 7 pm Dr. Jean
M. Clinton will be speaking at Holy Cross on “The Adolescent Brain: Why teens
do the things they do”. The presentation will explore what has been learned
about brain development and how the environment and experience plays a key role
in this development. Risk taking, novelty seeking, and risk of substance abuse
will be discussed. Stay tuned for more information.
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With Family Day coming up on February 18, it
gives us time to reflect on family.
Families come in all shapes and sizes, and can often include relatives
as well as friends. Regardless of our family make up, we learn a lot about life
from our families. We learn practical
things as well as more subtle or unspoken things that become part of our cultural
experience. How we view alcohol is one of
those things where actions speak louder than words. 
Super
Bowl Sunday is this weekend, and for television viewers, the best part, next to
the game itself, are the television ads created specifically for the Super Bowl
audience. Super Bowl advertising reaches
all ages—from adults to teens to young children, and it would seem that
Budweiser is well aware of this fact. In
2008, their Super Bowl ad entitled Budweiser Clydesdale Team closely resembled scenes
from 101 Dalmatians. This year, as part of its Super Bowl 2013
promotion, Budweiser is asking fans via twitter to name a Clydesdale foal
born 2 weeks ago. The Baby Clydesdale will star in the Budweiser Clydesdale
Super Bowl 2013 advertisement to be aired during the game on February 3rd. 