Paternalistic killjoy blues

Plus: Joe Coors go on TrueAnon!

There’s a business maxim that you hear beverage-alcohol industry types repeat a lot: “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don't know which half.” But according to a right-wing think tank’s “narrative review”of some studies, 100% of the money the booze industry spends to advertise its liquid wares is wasted, because ads have “no effect” on how much people drink. Therefore, there’s no need to regulate them more aggressively, thank you very much!

The report, which is not itself a peer-reviewed study, was published earlier this month by the Institute for Economic Affairs, a British “free-market think tank” that has a history of running cover for Big Tobacco and Big Oil patrons. (Oh hell yeah.) It’s called “Alcohol Advertising: What does the evidence show?” Perhaps it will not shock you to learn that it’s more complicated than bev-alc trade coverage of the industry-friendly report would have you believe.