Russia’s creative dumb solution to underage drinking
By Noah Davis • Jul 14th, 2009 • Category: Beer News
Russia has a beer-drinking problem. (This would be different from its vodka-drinking problem depicted in countless TV shows and James Bond flicks.)
The drinking age in the country is 18, but since beer isn’t considered an alcoholic beverage, an increasing number of children are imbibing themselves into stupidity. So, instead of altering that law, the country’s officials decided the best way to combat the situation is to ban the “use of offscreen voices and animated bottles and glasses” in beer commercials. (The depiction of people and animals in commercials has been outlawed for the past five years.)
“It creates the impression that someone is present,” Andrei Kashevarov, deputy head of the Federal Anti-Monopoly Service, told The Wall Street Journal. “We don’t want this trend to continue.”
Right, because animated bottles cause kids to drink.
