How many times have you opened a can of beer so that you could reach professional success? Most would say they never have, but according to Joan Dunayer's "Here's to Your Health," this is something we do often due to the effect of liquor advertising. In Dunayer's essay, she makes up so-called "myths" about alcohol consumption, and says that they're spread by advertisers. The point of her essay is to show how advertising maintains these so-called myths, and then tries to disprove them. The only problem though, is that there is nothing to disprove. Basically, the "myths" that the author is trying to bust are irrelevant to the problem of over-drinking.
For example, the first myth Dunayer tries to disprove is that "liquor signals professional success and achievement," and that these myths are all spread by advertisers and liquor companies (Dunayer 723). I don't think that when a person pops open a can of beer, they do it so they can reach professional success. To disprove this unproved myth, she states that "alcoholics are frequently late or absent, tend to perform poorly, and often get fired" (Dunayer 723). An alcoholic is someone who regularly abuses alcohol, and according to David Hanson's history of alcohol, alcohol abuse has been recorded since 2,700 B.C. in ancient Egypt (Hanson para. 6). Just for reference, advertising started in June of 1836, so I fail to see how advertising could possibly encourage alcoholism in a society that existed over 4,500 years before advertising even began.
The next "myth" that Dunayer tries to disprove, is that advertisers make you think that beer makes you sexier to the opposite sex. While I truly understand that peer pressure and a desire to impress the opposite sex is a big reason that people drink, I once again believe that it has nothing to do with advertising. Ever since man became man, people have been trying to find ways to blend in with other people.
