# Film, TV or magazine adverts showing drivers drinking alcohol to appear cool **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 29, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287 "2018-11-29T18:44:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Nansbread1](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Nansbread1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nansbread1)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287/1 "2018-11-29T18:44:49Z")
Were there any TV, film or print adverts where supposedly cool and good looking people drove their fancy cars while drinking beer or other alcoholic drinks. Probably in the 60s and 70s. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287/2 "2018-11-29T19:29:34Z")
Do you mean an advertisement _for_ a film? I have a poster for the original _Arthur_ which has Dudley Moore with a martini in one hand and the steering wheel of his car in the other… ETA: [This one.](https://meansheets.files.wordpress.com/2011/02/arthur3.jpg) ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 10:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287/3 "2018-11-29T22:05:00Z")
I assume you mean ads for beer or liquor showing the people drinking while driving? I couldn’t find any in a quick search. Driving drunk was a known problem long before the 50s and 60s. Ads combining cars and liquor probably couldn’t be run in most magazines or on television. That doesn’t mean none ever existed. But I’d be surprised if many ever appeared. Ads that include beer and cars did exist, without the drinking aspect. On this [page of Genesee beer ads](https://www.geneseebeer.com/vault/) is one that shows an attendant putting a case into a convertible. Scroll down in [this page](https://evolvingcritic.net/2011/06/12/its-a-mad-mad-world-liquor-advertisements-from-the-1950s/) and you’ll see Miss Rheingold posed next to a scooter, but no beer is in sight. These ads are probably far more common. I’m speaking only for the U.S. I don’t know what other countries might allow. ---
**Author:** ![Kent\_Clark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kent_clark/32/105_2.png) [@Kent\_Clark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kent_Clark)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 10:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287/4 "2018-11-29T22:52:40Z")
Hard liquor wasn’t advertised on American television until [1996](https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/08/business/liquor-industry-ends-its-ad-ban-in-broadcasting.html). According to Neil Patrick Harris (and Heineken) [you can advertise beer on TV but you can’t show anyone drinking it in the ad.](https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/20/heineken/neil-patrick-harris-heineken-ad-we-cant-drink-tv/) ---
**Author:** ![The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_other_waldo_pepper/32/12370_2.png) [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)\ **Post date:** [November 29, 2018, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287/5 "2018-11-29T22:57:03Z")
AFAICT, this pretty much happens near the start of the **Longest Yard** trailer. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287/6 "2018-11-30T02:02:10Z")
I seem to recall NASCAR competitors who are sponsored by beer companies, with the beer logo prominently plastered over their car. ---
**Author:** ![pkbites](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pkbites/32/204_2.png) [@pkbites](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pkbites)\ **Post date:** [November 30, 2018, 3:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/film-tv-or-magazine-adverts-showing-drivers-drinking-alcohol-to-appear-cool/825287/7 "2018-11-30T03:13:38Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > Hard liquor wasn’t advertised on American television until [1996](https://www.nytimes.com/1996/11/08/business/liquor-industry-ends-its-ad-ban-in-broadcasting.html). > > According to Neil Patrick Harris (and Heineken) [you can advertise beer on TV but you can’t show anyone drinking it in the ad.](https://www.politifact.com/punditfact/statements/2014/aug/20/heineken/neil-patrick-harris-heineken-ad-we-cant-drink-tv/) And as the article says, it’s an industry created regulation, not one by the FCC or Congress. [Here](https://youtu.be/slleEu4m1uE?t=529) is a vintage beer commercial showing 2 chaps drinking one of my favorite cheap brews, Stag. I wonder if now days they’d be allowed to use [cartoons](https://youtu.be/slleEu4m1uE?t=735) (with the voice of Tony the Tiger no less) to advertise beer. Or Hanna Barbera cartoons singing about how much [fun](https://youtu.be/slleEu4m1uE?t=794) drinking is. Gotta love them old beer commercials! 🆒