NH Magazine AD-Back Cover
 

I am a huge fan of NH Magazine. Afew weeks ago I was in Laconia Library reading it and when I was finished I noticed the back cover. It was an ad placed by The NH Liquor Commission. The heading was "CELEBRATE" and below this was a large picture of 2 people snomobiling and below that were 10-12 bottles of assorted alcohol. The message I got at a quick glance was to Celebrate, Ride your snomobile, and drink alcohol and lots of it! Remember reading that book BLINK? Look for yourself-Dec/09.

Hmmm... I can see how that could be concerning. Whenever I've done ads for alcohol, I've always included "please drink responsibly". Not that the fine print corrects the impression of the "big picture", but it would be nice. Did they include that?

I can see your point, absolutely. If they wanted a winter snow scene, they should have chosen a snowman, sledding or any number of other non-vehicle related images. You would think that would occur to *someone* in their marketing department!

That scenario reminds me of getting HOME from snowmobiling and then having a nice drink by the fireplace and supper. Really, we don't have to dumb everything down to the lowest level, do we?

Excuse me, are you calling me "dumb"?

I'm sure drinking and sleding happens, but for the most part most of our club does not drink and ride. (we are a bit older though!) But, kind of like if they put a picture of boating in the ad instead. I can see the point of concern. It is a fact that alcohol plays a part in many accidents. So no I would certainly not say you were dumb in voicing your concern with the ad. And NH magazine to boot. Do they have a letters to the editor section? Been a while since I got a copy. Sent them a note. It is a valid point.

Sorry to ask - no offense intended - but what's the tie to the LR here?

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I have a copy and looked at the advertisement. The reason the Ski-doo GTX is on the back cover is because the NH Liquor and Wine Outlets are sponsoring sweeps to win a new Ski-doo GTX.

As with any sweepstakes there is a sponsor and this time it is the NH Liquor commission.

I guess I was more interested in the sled than the bottles...:)

The term Dumbing Down as described in Wikipedia,

Dumbing down is viewed either as a pejorative term for a perceived over-simplification of, amongst other things, education, news and television, or as a statement of truth about real cultural trends in education and culture. According to John Algeo, former editor of American Speech, the neologism dumb down "revise so as to appeal to those of little education or intelligence" was first recorded in 1933 as movie slang, and dumb up in 1928.<SUP id=cite_ref-0 class=reference>[1]</SUP>
The concept "dumbing down" can point to a variety of different things but the concept always involves a claim about the simplification of culture, education, and thought, a decline in creativity and innovation, a degradation of artistic, cultural, and intellectual standards, or the undermining of the very idea of a standard, and the trivialisation of cultural, artistic, and academic creations.

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that anyone was dumb.

Would anyone who is not otherwise inclined to drink and sled then be inspired to drink and sled because they saw an ad such as this? I wonder.

After reading this, it makes me want a drink!

Which makes me think.....

Drive safely friends with New Years & All.....

See you in the New Year !!!!!

A stretch, but here's a couple stabs...

1) Lots of folks in the region (though not me personally) snomobile. And, as a matter of fact, the snowmobile was invented in Ossipee.

2) Most folks in here pay taxes. The liquor commission is a state agency. Presumably tax dollars were used in the purchase of the ad.

I ain't too likely to get all in a wad about this. Now if it were at a deerstand, that'd be another story altogether.