If MADD has run out of things to do, I'd like to help!

A New Jersey brewer has attracted the ire of the Mothers Against Drunk Driving, for naming beer after highway exits:

New Jersey craft brewer Flying Fish has attracted the attention of MADD, the NJ Turnpike Authority (NJTA), and the press for breaking the taboo with its line of beers named after exits on the New Jersey Turnpike.

The Exit 4 American Trippel was the first in the "big beer" series -- they come in 750-ml bottles -- part of "a multi-year brewing experiment to brew a series of beers as diverse as the great state of New Jersey." Exit 11, a Hoppy American Wheat Ale, will be coming later this month and is "a tribute to Woodbridge's exit, where the Turnpike meets the Garden State Parkway." Which must taste delicious...

MADD feels that "The combination of a roadway and advertising for any kind of a beer doesn't make any kind of sense."

Via Glenn Reynolds, who captions the post "WHEN ACTIVIST GROUPS RUN OUT OF THINGS TO DO."

Well, the activists at MADD may have run out of things to do, but I have not. I'm deeply concerned about another dangerous advertising combination, and I think a good argument can be made that MADD has been asleep at the wheel.

As someone MADD would consider to be a longtime victim of the alcohol industry, I'm a sucker for (or should that be of?) affordable red wine, and it just so happens that one of my favorite inexpensive California brands is called Bay Bridge wine.

Here's the label:

BayBridgeWine2.jpg

(I deliberately placed this dangerous product in front of an aquarium to emphasize the hazards of combining dangerous elements like water and alcohol advertising.)

While technically, the above isn't a "combination of a roadway and advertising for any kind of beer" on close examination (of the sort activists ought to do), it's actually worse, because wine has a higher alcohol content than beer. Moreover, because numerous yachts and other small water crafts sail near and directly under the Bay Bridge, the label can be said to be a tacit combination of a recreational waterway and advertising. (MADD, of course, also combats boating-under-the-influence, so you'd think they'd be leaping onto the Bay Bridge label with both feet.)

I mean for God's sake, driving, bridges, water? I cannot understand why MADD hasn't gone after what is obviously a triple threat. Have we forgotten about Ted Kennedy?

Sigh.

(I guess we should be glad that MADD hasn't turned its attention to other dangerous combinations -- like the religious worship of a man who turned water into wine.)

posted by Eric on 07.15.09 at 04:10 PM





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Comments

Who's now the head of MADD? Carrie Nation?

Even the Women's Christian Temperance Union isn't this petty.

Rhodium Heart   ·  July 15, 2009 10:32 PM

Holy cow! Looking closely at the bridge on your wine label I can see a jumper.

Jonathan   ·  July 16, 2009 05:59 AM

Shouldn't they be going after Colt 45?

Guns and liquor don't mix. Unless you are Hunter S. Thompson

M. Simon   ·  July 16, 2009 09:19 AM
M. Simon   ·  July 16, 2009 09:26 AM

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