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HOW AN INDUSTRY MADE IT IMPOSSIBLE TO SAY NO
In Part One We Talked About What Happens When Alcohol Reaches Your Brain
The GABA Amplification
The Dopamine Encoding
The Glutamate Rebound That Greets You The Next Morning
The Brain Does Not Pour The First Glass
Something Has To Make That First Glass Look Like The Obvious Choice
For Over A Century
An Entire Industry Has Been Dedicated To Making Sure It Does
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THE PLAYBOOK THEY NEVER HAD TO HIDE 📋
Tobacco Companies Had To Hide Their Research
They Had Internal Documents Proving Their Product Killed People And They Buried Them For Decades
The Alcohol Industry Never Needed To Do That
Their Strategy Was Not Concealment
It Was Culture
Beer Companies Bought The Super Bowl Before Most Americans Owned A Television
By The Time Anyone Thought To Ask Questions
The Answer Was Already Baked Into The Fabric Of Every Major Sporting Event In The Country
You Cannot Watch A Championship Game
A Fight Night
Or A Grand Prix Without The Product Appearing Every Four Minutes
Budweiser. Miller. Heineken. Modelo
The Brands Are Not Advertising A Drink
They Are Advertising A Feeling (Allegedly)
Brotherhood
Victory
The Cold One You Earned
The Emotion Lands First
The Liquid Is Secondary
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WINE GOT A DIFFERENT KIND OF CAMPAIGN 🍷
Beer Sold You Belonging
Wine Sold You Refinement
A Glass Of Wine With Dinner Is European
It Is Cultured
It Is What Adults Do When They Have Arrived At The Life They Were Working Toward
This Was Not Accidental Perception
The Wine Industry Funded Studies
Through The 1990s And Early 2000s
Suggesting That Moderate Consumption Had Cardiovascular Benefits
Headlines Followed
The Mediterranean Diet Included Wine
The French Paradox Was Discussed In Magazines
That Did Not Disclose Who Paid For The Research
In 2023 The World Health Organization Revised Its Position
There Is No Safe Amount Of Alcohol
No Protective Dose
No Threshold Below Which The Risk Disappears
The Studies That Suggested Otherwise Had Methodological Problems That
The Wine Industry's Funding Helped Nobody Look Too Closely At
The Tobacco Industry Had A Master Settlement Agreement In 1998
The Alcohol Industry Never Had One
Nobody Ever Made Them Stop
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THE CRAFT BEER REFRAME 🍺
When The Cultural Conversation Around Drinking Started To Shift
The Industry Did Not Panic
It Pivoted
Craft Beer Arrived As A Rebellion Against Corporate Alcohol
Small Batches
Local Breweries
The Language Of Artisanship And Independence
It Worked Because It Felt Like The Opposite Of Being Sold Something
The Person Choosing A Sour IPA From A Neighborhood Taproom Did Not Feel Like A Consumer
They Felt Like Someone With Taste
The Behavior Was The Same
The Packaging Was Different
The Industry Understood That The Generation Skeptical Of Brand Advertising Would Respond To Authenticity
So Authenticity Became The Brand
A 2022 Report Found That Craft Beer Drinkers
Consume More Per Occasion Than Traditional Beer Drinkers
The Rebellion Against Mass Market Alcohol Produced People Who Drink More Carefully Selected Alcohol More Often
THE RESEARCH THEY DO NOT WANT LEADING THE HEADLINE 🔬
Alcohol Is A Group 1 Carcinogen
The Same Classification As Asbestos And Tobacco
The International Agency For Research On Cancer Made This Determination Decades Ago
Most People Have Never Heard This
Alcohol Is Causally Linked To Seven Types Of Cancer
Breast. Colon. Liver. Esophagus. Stomach. Mouth. Throat
The Risk Begins Before Heavy Drinking
It Begins With Regular Consumption
A 2021 Study In The Lancet Found That Alcohol Causes More Deaths Globally Each Year
Than HIV, Violence, And Road Injuries Combined
The Substance With Those Numbers Has A Song Written About It For Every Occasion
A Commercial In Every Break
A Dedicated Section In Every Grocery Store
Every Restaurant In The Country Built A Revenue Model Around It
The Industry Did Not Survive Because It Was Honest
It Survived Because It Was Everywhere Before Anyone Thought To Question It
