RANDOM REMINDER

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31782, 12 September 1968, Page 20

RANDOM REMINDER

ABSINTHE MAKES THE HEART GROW FONDER

Although the Government’s decision not to go ahead with the plan to permit liquor advertising on television and radio will be welcomed by many, there are bound to be some regrets that there is to be no immediate challenge to the detergents and the deodorants of such compelling quality that there is an irresistible impulse to go out straight away and polish the kitchen, or to spray your wife with something which will provide her in a second with Parisian allure and the hygienic smell of a supermarket. Our own views on liquor advertising are coloured hy the American comedian Red Skelton who many years ago won friends and influenced people with a diverting mocktelevision advertisement

for Guzzler’s Gin. It was a superb performance, and although the prospect of something similar being seen on New Zealand screens must be regarded as remote, there is always room for hope. If there is ever a reversal of policy, and liquor advertising does appear on New Zealand screens, it is to be hoped that the advertisers will insist on accuracy. Take beer, for example. It would not do for a TV beer ad. to show some gentleman in tweeds, with a finely - groomed white moustache, holding a glass to the light and commenting on its superb quality. If a brewery wants to put over the message that its product is popular, it will have to have a long row of average New Zealanders being fed the beer from a plastic hose.

by a barman who squirts the stuff in with the speed and efficiency of an army medical officer with a hypodermic. And if it’s an advertisement for spirits, the obvious thing is for the drinkers to be complaining about the size of the measure—but finding it of such astonishing quality that their grumbles cease. There are two aspects of the argument about liquor advertising which received all too little attention. The first is that the breweries may well be relieved at the final decision, because of the extremely high costs which would have been involved. The second is that advertising liquor to a New Zealand public hardly seems necessary; by comparison, carrying coals to Newcastle would have been a work of the utmost national necessity.