ALCOHOL: The Whoopee Cushion Approach and the Foghorn Approach

U.K STYLE ALCOHOL ADVERT:

SWEDISH STYLE ALCOHOL ADVERT:

Above is a UK booze advert and a Swedish booze advert. Note the relative sizes of the health-warning text in each ad! The UK health-warning is miniscule and is shoved into the corner. The Swedish health-warning takes up almost a quarter of the space of the entire ad. Conclusion: the UK health warning is about as effective as a holey whoopee cushion and the Swedish health-warning blasts out like a foghorn.


Sweden has been fighting alcohol abuse since 1800. At that time many people were drinking spirits on a daily basis. Access to alcohol is restricted here. All alcoholic drinks over 3.5% are sold only at Systembolaget.

Systembolaget is a monopoly created to control alcohol consumption by getting rid of price competition and restricting access to its stores only. So that means no '6 for £5' deals on lager down the offi, my English friends! And only one place to buy the stuff.


'How oppressive' I hear you say! But Systembolaget denies any tyrannic motives. They claim that "The mandate can only continue as long as it has both parliamentary and popular support"


But never mind what Systembolaget says. What is the real attitude of ordinary Swedes you meet on the street towards booze and boozing?


My experience is that Swedes know how to have a good time and aren't aggressive drinkers. They're mostly laid-back and content. They can get pretty drunk (at Midsummer especially) but they rarely go too far. The aim is always to have a laugh. Alcohol helps them do that.


I feel that in England drinking as much as possible becomes an aim in itself. It's a drinking culture. In England socialising centers on the pub, whereas here in Sweden lots of socialising revolves around coffee and cake ("fika", they call it). If you don't drink and don't like pubs, you may have a hard time making friends in England! We English even say "cheers" instead of "thanks"! University really is just another piss-up (for 18 year old undergrads, that is). Let the party begin (but this time let it be in a pub far away from Mum and Dad...with student prices).


It seems English drinking culture is worrying the Swedes, but not the English! My Mother-in-Law once brought a newspaper article to the dinner table and laid it in front of me. It was a headline feature about how alcohol abuse was destroying the UK. She was concerned, but I didn't bat an eyelid! The English are now impervious to health warnings. Whenever the weather is sunny the media tells us sunlight gives you skin cancer. We haven't forgotten  how extensive media coverage of 'Mad Cow Disease' and SARS created national anxiety, despite the fact the death toll of both diseases on the British was microscopic! The Daily Mail in particular seems to revel in explaining how everything'll kill us. I sometimes feel that, according to the media, EVERYTHING seems to give you cancer. And that EVERYTHING will help prevent it. The result is that we've battened down the hatches of our senses. The media storm rages against us, but we cease to worry. Our concern for drinking is perhaps coloured by this anaesthetised state! We have many problems connected with drinking, but if alcohol abuse comes up in yet another one of these 'health-scares', we just shrug and say "what the hell".  


So it is from a very biased perspective that I must write that, for all the good they do, I can't shake the feeling that the gigantic health warnings in Sweden are a little insulting to peoples' intelligence. This must be how smokers feel in England. They must want to scream "FOR GOD'S SAKE, I KNOW!!!!". 


True to form, I won't make any serious moral conclusions. So I'll end ridiculously. England has many drink-related problems. But at least we have brilliant pubs! I have to say that watering holes in Sweden just don't quite make the grade. The socialism and fairness of Swedish society filters down into the boozers. 'But surely that's a good thing?' I hear you cry. Yes, but there's something missing. With everyone being equal there is a lack of tension: a lack of excitement that comes with the obsessiveness of the English with class and status. In England you get rowdy pubs, posh pubs, pubs for the old and the young. Our prejudices and exclusions somehow create a bit of colour. Whatever else our pubs are, they are not boring. They have character. In Sweden the boozers are all very nice. But that air of neutrality and acceptance which, although good in itself, leads to a certain vacuum of character. 


It's a weird thing to say, but perhaps a more open, classless society leads to mediocre boozers?! 


I won't be holding my breath for the Nobel Prize in Literature...