I try not to blog about TV. I have been known to run around predicting its demise, so admitting that I saw something on TV, not to mention that I am thinking about something I saw? It damages my street cred. I can’t help feeling that something has to be said about the VB/Legacy Australia, Raise a glass campaign. The Raise a glass campaign is dirty and wrong. Word.
Let me clarify. Legacy is good. And beer is good, in moderation. But putting the two together for this campaign irks me.
For those that have not been assailed with this commercial, there are a few of them, but the concept is the same. Veterans of various wars sit and tell stories about a mate they lost. The ads end with the viewer being urged to raise a glass to our fallen heroes. And then you’re driven to the website where VB try to sell you a slab with a specially printed thingo on it, with a view to raising a million bucks for Legacy.
I feel a little dirty for complaining about this, but I think it’s justified.
Do we not have a problem with binge drinking and alcohol abuse in this country?
Do we not have problems with underage drinkers? And ‘at-risk’ demographics turning to alcohol at the expense of their friends, jobs and families?
Do veterans not struggle with alcohol abuse as they come to terms with the aftermath of their involvement in a conflict?
Hasn’t anyone at VB/Legacy’s agency ever listened to Khe Sanh?
Alcohol is wrongly used as a means to dull pain. Whether it’s plain old civilian pain, or the result of mental scarring that armed combat can bring.
And along comes VB and tells us to ‘Raise a glass’ to fallen heroes. They’ve twisted a negative association into a positive action by shoe-horning in some veterans. And they’re hoping that the message is ‘cleaned-up’ by our grateful feelings towards both the fallen and the non-fallen heroes.
Can I tell you something? It didn’t work.
People drink to excess because of exactly the message you’re pushing on us. Loss, hurt, pain? Raise a glass! Raise another one! We’re giving you an excuse to keep going at it as well. And a warm, fuzzy feeling because a couple of bucks went to a charitable and decent organisation. Your carton even has a specially printed thingo on it.
Maybe the pretty printed thingo will jog your memory as to why you got annhialated on VB last night? Why your liver hates you, your mouth tastes like a pub floor and your brain feels like it was squeezed into a skull three sizes too small for it. And the warm fuzzy feeling might get you through the morning ’till the Berocca kicks in.
Hell, that would be a better campaign than Raise a frickin’ glass.
April 17th, 2009 at 4:51 pm
Hmmm… beer good (‘cept VB which is rubbish).
April 17th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
I would like the “General Manager” of the Raise a Glass Campaign, General Cosgrove if it is correct that he was paid $100,000 to front the campaign.
If this is correct, and I am assured that it is, where is his credibility.
More power to RSL Qld for their stand in not supporting a campaign supporting alcohol while the RSL also spends considerable sums assisting those of its members with alcohol problems.
General Dosgrove where are your principles?
April 27th, 2010 at 1:07 pm
They’ve raised over a million dollars and counting with this campaign. I’m sure legacy and the RSL aren’t complaining, considering that the funds are their to help war vetrans,
I understand why people may be cynical, but at the end of the day, fosters is still a business. every move they make needs to have a commercial justification. Just like McDonalds and their house with no stairs. Their motive, however, is to help organisations help people. and so, it’s been achieved.
April 17th, 2011 at 7:30 pm
Screw VB trying to ride on the backs of ANZAC for their corporate greed.