# Mila Kunis: bourbon and/or baby? **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [March 30, 2014, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895 "2014-03-30T14:45:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/61 "2014-03-31T18:15:17Z")
> [@Rune](#): > > Sex? I certainly never got pregnant and I’ve had quite a lot alcohol in my life. That’s why I said leads to not cause. Lowered inhibitions are a wonderful thing. But my ex-wife might never have been my wife if it wasn’t for that one night so ymmv. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/62 "2014-03-31T22:43:05Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > Originally, that was my goal. I now have a second, parallel goal: to get John Mace to acknowledge that the authors of those articles are advancing the second side of the argument that no one here will pick up. The authors might just as well be trying to capitalizing on celebrity gossip. Look at the sources of your cites (eg “E!News”). And it’s not like you are really playing this even handedly. You quoted this from one of your articles: “No one wants to see a pregnant woman holding up a glass of the hard stuff because it sends the wrong message to people?” But ignored what preceded and followed that snippet: "…this pregnancy means that her promoting liquors days are going to become scarcer as the pregnancy moves along. Nobody wants to see a pregnant woman holding up a glass of the hard stuff because it sends the wrong message to people. While there hasn’t been any official word from the Jim Bourbon distillery, it’s very likely that the company and the actress are going to work some sort of schedule out to accommodate both parties’ interests." That’s gossipy news, not any kind of outrage or cry for ads to be pulled. Reading the full context gives a significantly different “tone” to what the author is saying than if you just read that one sentence. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 31, 2014, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/63 "2014-03-31T23:07:59Z")
There’s no moral / actual reason to stop the ads. The only reason I can think of is that Jim Beam might think the ads are a bad idea in a marketing sense, because if public perception of the ads is “hey, look, she’s pregnant and drinking whiskey” that might be a bad ad campaign. Not an immoral one, but just might not land they way they want. This probably depends entirely on just how famous Mila Kunis and her pregnancy are, especially amongst the bourbon-drinking demographic. I honestly don’t know. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/64 "2014-04-01T00:10:56Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Bricker agrees. He’s just hoping someone here will pick up the other side of the argument. I think he should probably just write a letter to the authors of those articles. Ok, I’ll give it go. Yes, we all “know” that Mila Kunis is not pregnant and knocking back bourbon in those commercials. However, the commercials and her pregnancy were announced at roughly the same time. Many - perhaps even most - people will connect the two below the level of conscious thought. People will subconsciously react to the commercials as if they are promote drinking bourbon while pregnant. Everyone laughs at the network’s decision that Mary Tyler Moore not be divorced in her eponymous television show because people would imagine her has having divorced Dick Van Dyke, but, really - wouldn’t you have? ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 12:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/65 "2014-04-01T00:59:08Z")
> [@j666](#): > > Ok, I’ll give it go. > > Yes, we all “know” that Mila Kunis is not pregnant and knocking back bourbon in those commercials. However, the commercials and her pregnancy were announced at roughly the same time. Many - perhaps even most - people will connect the two below the level of conscious thought. > > People will subconsciously react to the commercials as if they are promote drinking bourbon while pregnant. > > Everyone laughs at the network’s decision that Mary Tyler Moore not be divorced in her eponymous television show because people would imagine her has having divorced Dick Van Dyke, but, really - wouldn’t you have? You’re right. That’s all reasonable. But I think Bricker is looking for a more moral outrage argument rather than a rational marketing decision to argue against. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 1:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/66 "2014-04-01T01:27:11Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > You’re right. That’s all reasonable. But I think Bricker is looking for a more moral outrage argument rather than a rational marketing decision to argue against. Well, wouldn’t most people subconsciously react **with moral outrage** to the commercials if they promote drinking bourbon while pregnant? Or are you thinking about some “Hang the Witch” response, which the title of the first article, “Will a pregnant Mila Kunis still peddle bourbon?”, seems to call for? ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/67 "2014-04-01T02:06:23Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > You’re right. That’s all reasonable. But I think Bricker is looking for a more moral outrage argument rather than a rational marketing decision to argue against. No, to the contrary, I was looking for anything that made sense…which this does, to some degree. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 2:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/68 "2014-04-01T02:33:58Z")
Meh, fetal alcohol syndrome is like chicken pox - best to get it out of the way early. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/69 "2014-04-01T04:46:44Z")
> [@Bricker](#): > > No, to the contrary, I was looking for anything that made sense…which this does, to some degree. Really? I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you didn’t see the obvious marketing problems here from the beginning then are significantly less worldly than I gave you credit for. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 5:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/70 "2014-04-01T05:00:02Z")
Personally, I can imagine Kunis doing bourbon endorsements even while pregnant if it was for obvious comical effect. Hypothetical people who are offended by this should lighten the fuck up. ---
**Author:** ![Odesio](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/odesio/32/20003_2.png) [@Odesio](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Odesio)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 5:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/71 "2014-04-01T05:31:07Z")
In the 1980s Michelob (I think) had an ad campaign with Eric Clapton. When the executives found out Clapton went into rehab for alcoholism they dropped him from the campaign because they thought it’d be bad for their image. I could certainly see Kunis being dropped for the same reason. ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 6:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/72 "2014-04-01T06:06:41Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > Really? I was giving you the benefit of the doubt. If you didn’t see the obvious marketing problems here from the beginning then are significantly less worldly than I gave you credit for. Look, I can write, Janus-like, a whole series of but-on-the-other-hand posts (which I guess would be more Teyve-like) that explore how the marketing folk might react, followed by how the more sensible management should respond. (“In this day and age, our audience is sophisticated enough to distinguish…”) Followed by the marketing rebuttal, followed by the backlash that criticizes the professional limits a woman faces merely by being pregnant (“A man would never lose his spokesperson spot like this!”) followed by…et cetera. But apart from the mental health issues raised by such a spirited debate with myself, such an exercise becomes futile the longer it continues, because I am coloring each additional step with my own perceptions and reasoning, and not leavening it with reaction and reasoning from any other viewpoint. Even the keenest observer can’t reliably predict these kinds of outcomes, which is why the world of advertising is littered with both crash-and-burn attempts and surprise breakout hits. Every Day Low Pricing was, logically, the better deal by far for JC Penney’s customers, and except for the tiny fact that customers hated it, virtually every single analysis proved how great it was. Virtually every pundit would have told Beyoncé that releasing an album with no advance publicity was a guaranteed disaster. So…I asked this community to weigh in, trusting its collective insights to provide more varied analysis than my own thinking could provide. I don’t agree that’s “less worldly,” than a reasonable person. ---
**Author:** ![CarnalK](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnalk/32/486_2.png) [@CarnalK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CarnalK)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 6:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/73 "2014-04-01T06:28:49Z")
A little grandiose way of saying that you were fishing for some dummy to defend arguments that even your reference authors keep at arm’s length. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 6:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/74 "2014-04-01T06:33:08Z")
Yeah, I don’t get it. Were we supposed to get all a-tizzy or something? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/75 "2014-04-01T12:50:01Z")
> [@Bryan\_Ekers](#): > > Hypothetical people who are offended by this should lighten the fuck up. I’m reminded of the furor raised by the folks in Celebrity News Land when it was rumored that KK had waxed little North’s unibrow before taking pictures. You wouldn’t believe how many hypothetical people were offended by that! ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/76 "2014-04-01T13:53:18Z")
> [@CarnalK](#): > > A little grandiose way of saying that you were fishing for some dummy to defend arguments that even your reference authors keep at arm’s length. No, and that’s a remarkably poor summary of what I said. I was hoping for someone to come along that was NOT a dummy and offer up a plausible argument. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 6:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/77 "2014-04-01T18:34:05Z")
Fine; Jim Beam should pull the ads because they hinge on Kunis being sexy yet seemingly attainable, which is undercut if the public is going to be constantly reminded for the next eight months that she’s pregnant, as the entertainment press is sure to do. Personally, I hear very little about Kunis’s private life (and my own life is not impoverished as a result) and I expect any such information for the near future to be pregnancy- and baby-related. ---
**Author:** ![j666](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/9de0a6/32.png) [@j666](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/j666)\ **Post date:** [April 1, 2014, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/78 "2014-04-01T23:22:34Z")
I don’t think it was unreasonable to ask for a reality check in response to that weirdly slanted headline and article in what appeared to be a reputable news source. That was an unexpectedly odd article. ---
**Author:** ![gigi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a587f6/32.png) [@gigi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gigi)\ **Post date:** [April 2, 2014, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/79 "2014-04-02T03:31:17Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > Counter-point: I find Kunis only medium-attractive, cue one of those needles scratching off a record. Does not compute. ---
**Author:** ![Bozuit](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/edb3f5/32.png) [@Bozuit](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bozuit)\ **Post date:** [April 6, 2014, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895/80 "2014-04-06T14:13:55Z")
> [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](#): > > Counter-point: I find Kunis only medium-attractive, and her endorsement will not cause me to change my opinion on rye vs. traditional bourbons. (Though I do like Devil’s Cut.) They should discontinue the ads. Celebrity endorsements tend to make me roll my eyes a little anyway, but Mila Kunis doesn’t strike me as someone I’d take advice on whiskey from. And yeah, I’m not even sure I find her that attractive. If Harrison Ford told me to drink Jim Beam, I probably would. Is he available? I doubt he’s pregnant. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mila-kunis-bourbon-and-or-baby/684895.md?page=5)