The Worst Alcohol-Related Ad in the History of the World

Recently the United States Supreme Court announced it would hear a case that challenges laws prohibiting lying in political advertisements. The word is that the Court is just dying to overturn such laws on first amendment grounds. If the Court does overturn these anti-lying laws, the good union folks at Pennsylvania’s United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 will breathe a sigh of relief.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 1776 represent the state alcohol store workers in Pennsylvania who recently put this commercial on the air in that state in a bid to stop any change in the law that would privatization of wine sales:

The message that privatizing Pennsylvania’s wine sales and allowing wine sales in grocery stores will kill children is a pretty cynical lie. Lying by its very nature is cynical. But this kind of thing…well….you’ve got to give credit to the folks at the United Food and Commercial Workers Union for reaching for the stars where cynicism is concerned.

I wanted to write something pithy and sarcastic and brilliant about the bevy of lies and cynicism that are exhibited in this advertisement, but honestly I can’t do any better than simply placing this ad here for you all to see.

I’ve witnessed a lot of cynicism in the course of observing how alcohol politics are played across the country. But this takes the cake. If you would like to send the folks a message to tell them how you feel about this ad, you can do so here.

Tags:


10 Responses

  1. MCC NITIN THLACAMNAK » Blog Archive » hollister - May 6, 2014

    […] hollister Necrotizing fasciitis […]

  2. Terroirist: A Daily Wine Blog » Daily Wine News: Outstanding Wine - May 6, 2014

    […] United Food and Commercial Workers Union has put out “The Worst Alcohol-Related Ad in the History of the World.” Shame on […]

  3. Mark - May 6, 2014

    Watching in disgust as the lies and emotional manipulations are piled on. Then at the end I found myself laughing out loud at this final statement said with a 3 year old child on lap: “It only takes a little greed to kill a child”. Exactly who’s greed are we talking about?

  4. Dan - May 6, 2014

    Well, I’m not even sure I would call that an ad. It just seemed like a perfectly natural conversation between two concerned mothers that just happened to be filmed. Basically a documentary.

    Mark – agreed, that last bit was a true laugh out loud moment. Genius!

  5. 1WineDude - May 7, 2014

    It really is its own parody, isn’t it?

  6. Becca - May 8, 2014

    Well, had my morning laugh and now off to the vineyard!! Thanks – that is too funny.

  7. Karen MacNeil - May 8, 2014

    “Ads” like this seem laughable, but the impact wont be funny for any of us. Trying to develop a thoughtful wine culture in the United States is a pursuit that continues to be set back by such ads and the fears they arouse. The 40+ percent of Americans who don’t drink any alcohol at all are probably nodding their agreement, even as we dismiss these messages as ludicrous. But we dismiss them at our peril.
    Karen

  8. Anatoli Levine - May 8, 2014

    It would be funny if it would not be so sad. This is incredible that today someone can produce something so manipulative as this kind of ad, filled with an absolute nonsense. Extremely, extremely sad…

  9. Erika Szymanski - May 8, 2014

    Does anyone know what the response to this illogical and poorly directed idiocy has been by people who aren’t wine professionals? I would love to see the reactions of a selection of plus-or-minus middle class, middle-educated Pennsylvania mothers to this. And I’d love to know if the Union did any audience testing before deciding to run it.

  10. Donn Rutkoff - May 23, 2014

    In Calif. a lot of us who belong to UFCW are wine stewards, liquor clerks, etc. We belong to a stupid union. I believe that Safeway Corp. (SWY) is one of the nations largest liquor retailers. Unionized. 100% union in Calif. Uuuuugggghhhhhh, I fell and I can’t get a Democrat to give me any $$$.


Leave a Reply