Impact Of Johnnie Walker Classic

[Sunbelt Asia]

From Todays Bangkok Post

Saturday October 21, 2006

http://www.bangkokpost.com/211006_News/21Oct2006_news20.php

EDITORIAL

Putting paid to alcohol abuse

Of all the hare-brained and ill-considered pieces of legislation to emerge from the Thaksin administration, the two measures which, between them, ban all liquor advertising, raise the minimum drinking age to 25 and introduce a host of other unenforceable controls stand out. They began to surface last January and should have been the first to be fed through the shredding machine when the man who inspired them was deposed. But they were not and we have had to endure a week of hand-wringing, intolerance and face-saving backdowns at the Public Health Ministry as a result.

Although cabinet objections have forced proponents of the 25-year-old minimum drinking age to retreat for now and lick their wounds, a sweeping advertising ban looks likely to come into force on Dec 5. This will throw thousands of "beer girls" _ usually students earning money for tuition fees and living expenses _ out of work while making no effort to provide them with alternative employment. They will lose their jobs in beer gardens because all advertising logos will be banned and their uniforms, sporting the brand of beer they sell, will become illegal. Other workers will join them, swelling the ranks of the newly unemployed to an estimated 30,000.

While live telecasts of overseas football matches will be spared, repeats or clips from the matches could be censored with all logos and advertising banners blacked out. Many people watch these repeats because live telecasts are often too late at night for fans who have to work the next day. Repeats of English games (especially Everton where players and banners actively promote Beer Chang), the 2008 Euro and 2010 World Cup and all international tournaments involving the Thai national team could be in jeopardy on local TV.

Also at risk is the Johnnie Walker golf tournament next March, designed to boost Phuket's tourism industry. The competition, due to be telecast worldwide and attract the cream of the world's golfers, had been expected to draw 10,000 visitors Five hundred million baht has already been spent on promotion.

The Heineken Jazz Festival at Hua Hin and other concerts will disappear in their present form.

But none of these consequences of the ban would matter in the slightest if it had the remotest chance of weaning those most vulnerable off alcohol and saving lives. It would be a worthy sacrifice. We already know that alcohol abuse is a horribly real problem, fuelling domestic and street violence. It is responsible for much of the carnage on our roads, especially at Songkran. But instead of a well thought-out attempt to address the cause of the problem, there is just the illusion that something meaningful is being done. We already have a ban on TV advertising of alcohol before 10pm and if the authorities think this has little impact, what good can come of extending the ban to cover the hours when most people are asleep?

The first step in reaching a solution is identifying the problem. And that is not social drinking in a Thong Lor pub or brand logos. What causes most consumers to lose control is the demon at the low end of the market called lao khao, or white spirit. It is at least 40 per cent alcohol by volume, absurdly cheap and totally lethal. Furthermore it is never advertised so the new round-the-clock advertising bans will have absolutely no effect on sales. Bottles of the brew are flying off shelves because it carries the lowest excise tax, although it contains the highest percentage of alcohol legally available. Beer, on the other hand, which many lao khao drinkers would prefer, attracts a huge tax rate so they cannot afford it.

This is a farcical situation that must be resolved to stop alcohol abuse. First we should lower alcohol levels and revamp the excise tax system so the lower the percentage of alcohol, the lower the tax. Educate youngsters to make them aware of the dangers. Let parents teach their children to develop a healthy respect for themselves, their religion and the law. Then impose tight controls on irresponsible drinkers and prosecute them when necessary, regardless of their connections, family name or bank balance. Laws already exist for this purpose so why not enforce them? We do not need any more.

From Todays Bangkok Post Sports Page

http://www.bangkokpost.com/Sports/21Oct2006_sport09.php

JOHNNIE WALKER CLASSIC

Alcohol ban claims first scalp

SUCHIN CHIRAKUL

A 24-hour ban on advertising of alcoholic drinks in all forms of media issued this week prompted organisers of the Johnnie Walker Classic to relocate the tournament to South Korea.

South Korea will now replace Thailand as host of the US$4.3m tournament, which was scheduled to be held at Blue Canyon in Phuket between March 1-4 next year.

The ban, issued this week by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), will take effect after announcement in the Royal Gazette for 45 days.

According to Panlert Baiyok, the tournament's coordinator, Blue Canyon had spent around 30 million baht so far to renovate the golf course in preparation for the tournament.

www.sunbeltasiagroup.com

[johnh101]

Sure, get rid of the hoardings everywhere, don't have it in the shop windows, take the adverts of the TV and out of magazines.

But as always NO they must go the whole hog and ###### the consequences. It doesn't seem to matter who is in power it seems that one of Thailands greatest skills is contantly shooting themselves in the foot.

[on-on]

Sure, get rid of the hoardings everywhere, don't have it in the shop windows, take the adverts of the TV and out of magazines.

But as always NO they must go the whole hog and ###### the consequences. It doesn't seem to matter who is in power it seems that one of Thailands greatest skills is contantly shooting themselves in the foot.

A friend of mine who has studied, and lived in Turkey for some time likes to say that Thailand is the Brazil of Asia. Plenty of talent and potential, but it can't quite ever make it over the hump. Obviously there are so many ways in which this comparison falls flat, but it is interesting to see moves like this in that light even if it is a convenient narrative for the usual detractors. We Americans do things like this regularly, political maneuvers which are an expression of the nationalism of "traditional values." The difference is that America can, at least still for the time being, get away with these kinds of anachronistic expressions because we have enough economic heft, particularly in the consumer market, that it requires people to play ball. The Thais simply do not and when you're at such a critical juncture as Thailand is at, that of the nether region between developing and developed that they've come to inhabit (IMO), it's only that much more painful to send this kind of message to the world. I think speaking purely pragmatically it's also such a bad idea because it's a complete and total pipe dream as I assume is obvious for all the likewise obvious reasons. Again I am caught at the juncture where I respect that the Thais must govern themselves according to their social (at least their outward social) beliefs, but I am also saddened that this expression will be completely obviated by reality and therefore cause substantive economic problems for absolutely no substantive gain. Edited October 21, 2006 by on-on

[ZZZ]

I don't think Thailand is unique in banning tobacco and alcohol advertisement; many other countries have already banned this or are about to.

None of the mentioned events are organized by the advertisers it's just up to the organizers to get other sponsors.

All this may take a while as big events like Johnny Walker Classics are usually tied up long in advance but could return to Thailand as Coca Cola Classics, or similar, in a year or two.

[sting01]

Mens sana in corpore sanum!

Ever heard that Gents and Chicks?

About the student working to pay tuition fees, I know some real student (in MBA) who also pay their tuition fees by working in N E P. Does prostitution (that does not exist in Thailand) have to be legalised because of them?

Alcohol and tobacco problems are public health problems. Tobacco is banned in Ireland, and the pub owners are saying 2 things : more clients who stay longer and staff is less sick ...

Coupled alcohol with sport, hight level sport is a pure disgrace, like for exemple the local liquor who advertised by using a picture of Zidane and stating he was so good because he used to drink this local liquor (local = thai) ... What a joke, I do not think Zinedine Zidane have ever drink alcohol. Same can say about tobacco, in the team who won the footbal world cup in 1998, it was 1 (one) person who used to smoke : Fabien Barthez.

So, tobacco and alcohol are bad for health and body and in no way compatible with sport (hight or low level).

The beer girls working inbeer garden ... well, maybe thailand should generate some real jobs that are not directly or undirectly reliate to the entertainment industry ... or maybe as it's in europe allow people with enought grey cells to study without regards on their income or their parent wealth ( a student in France will pay about 4 * 50 euros (50 euros per year) to go in university and get a master IF and only IF he/she is worth the diploma).

Personal opinion, but who will cares about the pretty young lady in a beer garden if you get a stroke, a cyrhose, or any other disease related to hight consomption of alcohol???? Will you?

[opothai]

I don't think Thailand is unique in banning tobacco and alcohol advertisement; many other countries have already banned this or are about to.

None of the mentioned events are organized by the advertisers it's just up to the organizers to get other sponsors.

All this may take a while as big events like Johnny Walker Classics are usually tied up long in advance but could return to Thailand as Coca Cola Classics, or similar, in a year or two.

you are right ZZZ but as mentioned earlier thailand have not got the economy to throw potential big money makers away.

this is a big blunder for a lot of innocent now unemployed youngsters

and thai being thai this has little chance of being reversed, face and all that.

tell me an event that is as big as the johnny walker classic that thailand has.

they used to get good coverage on the snooker a few years ago but that has all but dissapeared on uk tv

[cclub75]

Alcohol and tobacco problems are public health problems. Tobacco is banned in Ireland, and the pub owners are saying 2 things : more clients who stay longer and staff is less sick ...

So, tobacco and alcohol are bad for health and body and in no way compatible with sport (hight or low level).

Personal opinion, but who will cares about the pretty young lady in a beer garden if you get a stroke, a cyrhose, or any other disease related to hight consomption of alcohol???? Will you?

It's funny : you assume that the hysteria alcohool/tobacco in the West, is intrinsically good and for that matter should be replicated all around the world.

And if it was the contrary ? And if Thailand was one of the last free land, that should be preserved like a precious gem ?

I mean : the old habbit to say, for everything, "done in the West, so East should do the same" is more and more irrelevant.

Anyway, more than a health issue or an economic one, the whole discussion is... a philosophical one.

And for that matter, it's very difficult to find a common understanding.

[on-on]

Mens sana in corpore sanum!

Ever heard that Gents and Chicks?

About the student working to pay tuition fees, I know some real student (in MBA) who also pay their tuition fees by working in N E P. Does prostitution (that does not exist in Thailand) have to be legalised because of them?

Alcohol and tobacco problems are public health problems. Tobacco is banned in Ireland, and the pub owners are saying 2 things : more clients who stay longer and staff is less sick ...

Coupled alcohol with sport, hight level sport is a pure disgrace, like for exemple the local liquor who advertised by using a picture of Zidane and stating he was so good because he used to drink this local liquor (local = thai) ... What a joke, I do not think Zinedine Zidane have ever drink alcohol. Same can say about tobacco, in the team who won the footbal world cup in 1998, it was 1 (one) person who used to smoke : Fabien Barthez.

So, tobacco and alcohol are bad for health and body and in no way compatible with sport (hight or low level).

The beer girls working inbeer garden ... well, maybe thailand should generate some real jobs that are not directly or undirectly reliate to the entertainment industry ... or maybe as it's in europe allow people with enought grey cells to study without regards on their income or their parent wealth ( a student in France will pay about 4 * 50 euros (50 euros per year) to go in university and get a master IF and only IF he/she is worth the diploma).

Personal opinion, but who will cares about the pretty young lady in a beer garden if you get a stroke, a cyrhose, or any other disease related to hight consomption of alcohol???? Will you?

The best counter to this particular straw man is to ask, "Will it change anything?" I take no issue with the general version of the points you make about tobacco and alcohol being bad for the health, but the question here is whether this policy will effect change on consumption habits. We actually had a period of prohibition in the US where alcohol production and consumption was completely illegal. Now, the US and Thailand aren't similar in many ways, but I think I can safely say that the number of flags we fly and the amount of alcohol we consume is pretty similar. Judging by our shared proclivities in terms of vices, I'm guessing that these bans will affect alcohol consumption in The Kingdom in much the same way that the self-imposed liquor advertising bans in the US affect liquor consumption or in much the same way that prohibition did, which is to say "not at all." Certainly if the laws governing prostitution and pornography are any indication, consumption of sex services or products depicting sex as consumer items certainly don't seem to have been affected in Thailand. From what I understand we have a number of brothels in the US, but Thailand is leagues ahead of even our nation of 300,000,000 in terms of open and might-as-well-be-legal prostitution. In that light, what makes you think that a ban on alcohol advertising will in any way change alcohol consumption?

I don't mean to preach a wholly libertarian solution to a moral and public health issue that is the rightful concern of nations in their self-governance, but I think you really need to be pragmatic when you make policy. Ireland didn't ban tobacco or tobacco advertising, it banned smoking in establishments just like the US has in various states and municipalities for years. After years of public service campaigns and selective advertising bans we've become probably the single most smoking-unfriendly major nation on the face of the Earth. Yet, still, the prevalence of smoking among men and women in America has plateaud since the early 1990s - the time when these laws began to be passed. The laws in Ireland and the US exist because of years of anti-smoking education, the smoking didn't cease because of them, the laws were passed because years of education and public indoctrination changed social behavior. You have to build that foundation and achieve public buy in before you can expect laws to have any effect, otherwise you're just pissing in the wind as we say in Texas. You're passing feel-good laws that either will have no effect or that people won't obey and that's not good for either the integrity of your system or, in this case, for its economy. Who is helped? Many other things are bad for people - should we make all of those illegal? Or is it just alcohol and tobacco? I think you see where I'm going.

The only area I really think you're just out of line on is in proclaiming that Thailand "should generate some real jobs." That's just petty bullying of a developing country. It's not as if the Thai people stand up and vote to have their young walk around bars wearing beer logo dresses, it's just what's available. And anyway, this particular type of job isn't uncommon in the US at all either - go to any college town or major city in the richest nation on earth and you'll find plenty of girls wearing either logo'd outfits or bikinis hawking alcohol. I'd have to do some research, but given that most of the various trends in modern marketing (the promotion function at least) flow from either the USA or the UK, I'd be willing to bet that we invented the beer girl. I certainly know we have them. It just seems petty to blame Thai college kids for doing a job that American college kids do as if the Thais are somehow lower for doing it.

[in the interest of disclosure I should point out that I do drink, I don't smoke and, given the chance, I would vote for smoking bans in bars and restaurants in the US, if not Thailand]

Edited October 21, 2006 by on-on

[bkkandrew]

I don't think Thailand is unique in banning tobacco and alcohol advertisement; many other countries have already banned this or are about to.

None of the mentioned events are organized by the advertisers it's just up to the organizers to get other sponsors.

All this may take a while as big events like Johnny Walker Classics are usually tied up long in advance but could return to Thailand as Coca Cola Classics, or similar, in a year or two.

Unless the next advetising target is sweet fizzy drinks to target obesity..

[Ijustwannateach]

^I'd agree with that one myself.

[Maizefarmer]

The guy who owns the "Johnnie Walker" brand in Thailand (along with a load of other imported drink brands - in Thailand), is an expat who has lived here many years and holds Thai citizenship.

He is hopping mad about this, having already spent not only a large amount on the 2007 "Classic", but most of 2007's print and visual media advertising (which exceeds the amount spent on the "Classic" several times over) has already been prepeared and lies wrapped up in various agency storerooms, waiting to be launched ...... and much the same can be said of all alcohol manufacturers, brewers and wholesalers, who all follow much the same marketing & advertising timeframes.

A hare-brained policy if evey there ever was one.

I strongly suspect that if we look back in a years time on the "alcohol related incident statistics", there will be little change - if any.

Tim

[on-on]

^I'd agree with that one myself.

I think the better answer there is to fly them to America and show them what obesity looks like when it reaches epic social proportions. Explain the phenomenon of "arm flab" on women and "guts" on men and watch the horror as you show them the regularity of women so fat that they are too weak and lazy to walk so that they drive motorized carts around the grocery store filling them with obscene amounts of food. It'd be like "Scared Straight," but for obesity, heh.

[bkkandrew]

^I'd agree with that one myself.

I think the better answer there is to fly them to America and show them what obesity looks like when it reaches epic social proportions. Explain the phenomenon of "arm flab" on women and "guts" on men and watch the horror as you show them the regularity of women so fat that they are too weak and lazy to walk so that they drive motorized carts around the grocery store filling them with obscene amounts of food. It'd be like "Scared Straight," but for obesity, heh.

Now I know we are straying off topic here, but on your last point, you are not serious are you? Motorised carts??

[Ijustwannateach]

We're straying off topic, but yes, it does happen (not to all women, of course).

I think this ban is another case of throwing the baby of mature adult advertising out with the bathwater of abuse. At a high school I know in Bangkok last year, the school fair had booths and tents with CHANG BEER logos all over them!!!

"Steven"

[on-on]

Now I know we are straying off topic here, but on your last point, you are not serious are you? Motorised carts??

Sounds fairly sensational, I know, but go to any Wal Mart (or other grocery store, but particularly Wal Mart for demographic reasons) in suburban or rural areas of America, particularly the South and Midwest, and you'll find this. The Carts, "Mart Karts," are provided for disabled customers, but if you go to one of these places enough you'll notice the very obese people using them and then getting out of them at their cars after which they waddle around and handle their grocery bags with relative finesse. If I had seen it once or twice I would have assumed that the obese person in question might be somehow disabled in a manner which isn't visible, but I've seen it many times. The UK is pretty close to America in overall weight problems, but when you analyze the distribution of weight you find that no one comes close to America when it comes to level of population with sheer morbid obesity. Edited October 21, 2006 by on-on

[Noel]

^I'd agree with that one myself.

I think the better answer there is to fly them to America and show them what obesity looks like when it reaches epic social proportions. Explain the phenomenon of "arm flab" on women and "guts" on men and watch the horror as you show them the regularity of women so fat that they are too weak and lazy to walk so that they drive motorized carts around the grocery store filling them with obscene amounts of food. It'd be like "Scared Straight," but for obesity, heh.

Now I know we are straying off topic here, but on your last point, you are not serious are you? Motorised carts??

Word has it that some of the prize specimens have to use two carts in tandem, one for each cheek...

[womble]

"I strongly suspect that if we look back in a years time on the "alcohol related incident statistics", there will be little change - if any. "

And you think the officially released figures will be accurate and not dressed up to save face?

[ZZZ]

I don't think Thailand is unique in banning tobacco and alcohol advertisement; many other countries have already banned this or are about to.

None of the mentioned events are organized by the advertisers it's just up to the organizers to get other sponsors.

All this may take a while as big events like Johnny Walker Classics are usually tied up long in advance but could return to Thailand as Coca Cola Classics, or similar, in a year or two.

you are right ZZZ but as mentioned earlier thailand have not got the economy to throw potential big money makers away.

this is a big blunder for a lot of innocent now unemployed youngsters

and thai being thai this has little chance of being reversed, face and all that.

tell me an event that is as big as the johnny walker classic that thailand has.

they used to get good coverage on the snooker a few years ago but that has all but dissapeared on uk tv

I doubt very much that it is the “innocent now unemployed youngsters” that will suffer from this, more likely the already very rich businessmen will take a bit of a hit.

Events like this may create some additional work for a very short period of time but not much of lasting value. In any case these events will continue with other sponsors.

[ZZZ]

Alcohol and tobacco problems are public health problems. Tobacco is banned in Ireland, and the pub owners are saying 2 things : more clients who stay longer and staff is less sick ...

So, tobacco and alcohol are bad for health and body and in no way compatible with sport (hight or low level).

Personal opinion, but who will cares about the pretty young lady in a beer garden if you get a stroke, a cyrhose, or any other disease related to hight consomption of alcohol???? Will you?

It's funny : you assume that the hysteria alcohool/tobacco in the West, is intrinsically good and for that matter should be replicated all around the world.

And if it was the contrary ? And if Thailand was one of the last free land, that should be preserved like a precious gem ?

I mean : the old habbit to say, for everything, "done in the West, so East should do the same" is more and more irrelevant.

Anyway, more than a health issue or an economic one, the whole discussion is... a philosophical one.

And for that matter, it's very difficult to find a common understanding.

My assumptions are not intrinsic; they are based on common knowledge.

You are up for a surprise if you think alcohol and tobacco is good for you.

[womble]

Alcohol in small to moderate quantities is not harmful. Infact quite the opposite, certain drinks can bring health benefits, also the stress release from socialising in safe enviroments can also bring benefits to the non abusive drinker.

Smoking on the otherhand is harmful in any quantity.

[on-on]

Alcohol in small to moderate quantities is not harmful. Infact quite the opposite, certain drinks can bring health benefits, also the stress release from socialising in safe enviroments can also bring benefits to the non abusive drinker.

Smoking on the otherhand is harmful in any quantity.

Yeah, I was considering pointing out the comical irony of his using smoking bans in bars in Ireland as evidence for an anti-alcohol campaign, but I think there are probably larger fish to fry there, heh.

[sting01]

Mens sana in corpore sanum!

Ever heard that Gents and Chicks?

About the student working to pay tuition fees, I know some real student (in MBA) who also pay their tuition fees by working in N E P. Does prostitution (that does not exist in Thailand) have to be legalised because of them?

Alcohol and tobacco problems are public health problems. Tobacco is banned in Ireland, and the pub owners are saying 2 things : more clients who stay longer and staff is less sick ...

Coupled alcohol with sport, hight level sport is a pure disgrace, like for exemple the local liquor who advertised by using a picture of Zidane and stating he was so good because he used to drink this local liquor (local = thai) ... What a joke, I do not think Zinedine Zidane have ever drink alcohol. Same can say about tobacco, in the team who won the footbal world cup in 1998, it was 1 (one) person who used to smoke : Fabien Barthez.

So, tobacco and alcohol are bad for health and body and in no way compatible with sport (hight or low level).

The beer girls working inbeer garden ... well, maybe thailand should generate some real jobs that are not directly or undirectly reliate to the entertainment industry ... or maybe as it's in europe allow people with enought grey cells to study without regards on their income or their parent wealth ( a student in France will pay about 4 * 50 euros (50 euros per year) to go in university and get a master IF and only IF he/she is worth the diploma).

Personal opinion, but who will cares about the pretty young lady in a beer garden if you get a stroke, a cyrhose, or any other disease related to hight consomption of alcohol???? Will you?

The best counter to this particular straw man is to ask, "Will it change anything?" I take no issue with the general version of the points you make about tobacco and alcohol being bad for the health, but the question here is whether this policy will effect change on consumption habits. We actually had a period of prohibition in the US where alcohol production and consumption was completely illegal. Now, the US and Thailand aren't similar in many ways, but I think I can safely say that the number of flags we fly and the amount of alcohol we consume is pretty similar. Judging by our shared proclivities in terms of vices, I'm guessing that these bans will affect alcohol consumption in The Kingdom in much the same way that the self-imposed liquor advertising bans in the US affect liquor consumption or in much the same way that prohibition did, which is to say "not at all." Certainly if the laws governing prostitution and pornography are any indication, consumption of sex services or products depicting sex as consumer items certainly don't seem to have been affected in Thailand. From what I understand we have a number of brothels in the US, but Thailand is leagues ahead of even our nation of 300,000,000 in terms of open and might-as-well-be-legal prostitution. In that light, what makes you think that a ban on alcohol advertising will in any way change alcohol consumption?

I don't mean to preach a wholly libertarian solution to a moral and public health issue that is the rightful concern of nations in their self-governance, but I think you really need to be pragmatic when you make policy. Ireland didn't ban tobacco or tobacco advertising, it banned smoking in establishments just like the US has in various states and municipalities for years. After years of public service campaigns and selective advertising bans we've become probably the single most smoking-unfriendly major nation on the face of the Earth. Yet, still, the prevalence of smoking among men and women in America has plateaud since the early 1990s - the time when these laws began to be passed. The laws in Ireland and the US exist because of years of anti-smoking education, the smoking didn't cease because of them, the laws were passed because years of education and public indoctrination changed social behavior. You have to build that foundation and achieve public buy in before you can expect laws to have any effect, otherwise you're just pissing in the wind as we say in Texas. You're passing feel-good laws that either will have no effect or that people won't obey and that's not good for either the integrity of your system or, in this case, for its economy. Who is helped? Many other things are bad for people - should we make all of those illegal? Or is it just alcohol and tobacco? I think you see where I'm going.

The only area I really think you're just out of line on is in proclaiming that Thailand "should generate some real jobs." That's just petty bullying of a developing country. It's not as if the Thai people stand up and vote to have their young walk around bars wearing beer logo dresses, it's just what's available. And anyway, this particular type of job isn't uncommon in the US at all either - go to any college town or major city in the richest nation on earth and you'll find plenty of girls wearing either logo'd outfits or bikinis hawking alcohol. I'd have to do some research, but given that most of the various trends in modern marketing (the promotion function at least) flow from either the USA or the UK, I'd be willing to bet that we invented the beer girl. I certainly know we have them. It just seems petty to blame Thai college kids for doing a job that American college kids do as if the Thais are somehow lower for doing it.

[in the interest of disclosure I should point out that I do drink, I don't smoke and, given the chance, I would vote for smoking bans in bars and restaurants in the US, if not Thailand]

Well I do agree prohibition is not solution. I also agree we are spoken about a developing country. But I also agree that east do not have to replicate west mistakes.

So I will develop my argumentation by saying Zola described well what was the situation in europe one century ago (l'assomoir), and the same is describing what is the situation right now to thailand.

Anyway, mostly people come here (western malesI mean) for 2 things : cold beer and hot chicks. The ban will suppres both, so yes it can create problem.

On the other hand, does that country really need to rely on acoholic who kill or kill thenslef while driving drunk? or on 'semi mondaines' whose work is to push weak men to over drinking?

Anyway I express an opinion that is not the opinion of the majority of the people, I do know it. But it's an opinion. I do smoke, I do not drink because I can not handle any hangover the day after (my work need me to have a clear brain) not because for some moral reason. But I also know how my health was damaged by years of smoking (starting to pay theprice).

So just an opinion, no need to flame me (note to other posters )

[Chang_paarp]

If the powers that be were serious about changing the impact of alcohol consumption on the population they would need to look seriously at a couple of measures;

1. Adjusting the tariff on alcoholic products, so that it reflected the % of alcohol in the product, not the strength of the lobby groups
   
2. Enforcing the drink driving laws without fear of favour. (They do have them don't they?)
   
3. Providing adequate education to the whole country. Health and general education.
   

The money saved in the health system alone will allow the govenment to sponsor all these events.

Messing with the advertising of products has not shown to reduce the consumption of these products. It only affects the choice of brand. Getting back to smoking, it is the aggressive anti-smoking advertising that has reduced smoking rates, not the lack of advertising. In some countries they are even losing that battle, smoking rates are increasing in the 12-24 age group.

[womble]

Chaang Parp is quite right, those are the three things that need addressing urgently if they are serious in reducing the problems of excessive drinking.

If they fail to make any attempt to change the alcohol taxation system in a way that makes Lao Kao and strong spirits more expensive and beer and other weaker drinks cheaper then I will assume they are not serious at all.

[farangconnection]

Isn't it only single banners that are not allowed. I think you can advertise if you have 10 banners or more.