I love to pick up a last-minute candy bar at the register. As much as I know that candy bars next to the checkouts are just marketing tricks that aimed to trick buyers into buying something they don’t need by exploding their decision fatigue, I always happily let myself indulge just a little bit. 

Last week, as I was ready to pick up my regular last-minute treat in my local grocery store,  a new row of displaying baskets caught my eye. Each basket is filled with a few dozen attractively packaged beverages. The hand-drawn art and bold colors were stunning. I picked one up with some excitement, only to realize it was hard seltzer. I dropped it back into the basket with disbelief. Since when did we sell an addictive and potentially life-destroying substance next to candy bars? 

The Bubble of Unreality 

In the past several years, the alcohol industry has been blooming. One can order liquor and have it delivered to their doorstep within just a few clicks on the phone; wine and beers are served in barbers shops and salons; and the row of boxed wine and caned hard seltzer is moving closer and closer to the register. One may easily conclude that alcohol must be completely harmless if we are selling them next to candy bars. 

I admit - calling hard seltzer poison may be an exaggeration. However, it’s an undeniable fact that alcohol is the fourth-leading preventable cause of death in our country, and there are more than 140,000 people die from alcohol-related causes each year. 

This is not the first time in history that an addictive and harmful substance has been innocently placed next to candy bars. We are currently living in a bubble of unreality with alcohol the same way that people were in the 50s with cigarettes. Today, cigarettes are locked up behind the counter, smokers are required to smoke in designated places, and no tobacco commercial can be aired on TV or radio. Yet, in the 50s, tobacco was once a socially approved substance, just like how alcohol is today.

A Simple Formula to Sell Poison 

If you place a few cigarette commercials from the 50s side-by-side next to the alcohol commercials today, you may be surprised by how much they resemble each other. The strategies that have been used to sell the two addictive, harmful, and potentially life-destroying substances are all the same, which is called the “product’s product’s product.”  

The first product is the actual product that is being sold. However, no marketer who wants to keep his job would market the actual product itself in terms of alcohol or cigarettes. Because if one attempts to do so, we would see advertisements about dried, decaying vegetable matter for cigarettes, and yellowish liquid that looks a little like urine for alcohol.  

Any marketer who wants to bring in sales would not stop at the product’s product either. Imagine an alcohol commercial that features slurred speech, lost coordination, and uncontrollable vomiting. Or a cigarette ad that displays yellowed teeth, stained fingers, and blackened lungs. I bet no one would rush to buy their products after watching commercials like that. 

Instead, marketers speak to the deepest human desire. They sell what is called the product’s product’s product by suggesting that their product will bring you closer to your earnest longings. They speak volumes about success, sex, connection, and happiness. They suggest that if you inhale their brand of dried, decaying vegetable matter or consume their brand of yellowish liquid, you will bridge the gap between what you have and what you want. 

Alcohol commercials sell success and wealth when, in reality, countless people have lost their job and gone bankrupt from consuming the very substance. Alcohol commercials sell connection and happiness when, in reality, so many relationships were destroyed and hearts were broken from the very poison that was packaged in attractive bottles. 

Drinking Less in a Culture that Sells Poison Next to Candy Bars 

Everyone who lives in the US today encounters countless commercials for alcohol each day. These commercials inevitably shape our feelings and beliefs about alcohol - influencing our consumption behavior outside of our conscious awareness. 

In a sense, many of us are set up to fail. As we, consciously or subconsciously, learn to link alcohol with a way to achieve connection, relaxation, or happiness. As a natural result of the condition, we would feel deprived or miss out as we attempt to drink less. Subsequently, many of us find ourselves stuck in the same drinking cycle despite the repeated effort to break free. If you find yourself no longer as in control as you wish with alcohol, you are not alone, and it’s NOT your fault. 

The reality is that we are collectively living in a bubble of unreality where the majority of people are conditioned to see a highly addictive substance as a harmless source of enjoyment - blaming the ones who have become addicted to it. 

If you are rethinking your relationship with alcohol. I applaud you. Going against a mainstream culture is never easy. You are here NOT because you are broken, you are here because you are brave.

To help you drink less in a culture where “everyone” seems to drink, I would love to share with you some of my favorite tools including the 3-minute drinking daily, delay-drinking activities, and self-compassion practice. Check out these wonderful tools in my free Drink Less Tonight Guide.