Distorting Reality Before the First Sip

Obviously, the claim that Miller Lite is the reason for a person’s existence is absurd. This commercial’s means of getting the consumer’s attention is the humor of such an outlandish claim. But why is the claim considered funny?

On some level, people recognize that what defines an alcoholic is not the amount of alcohol he consumes, or even when, but rather why he consumes it. Obviously an alcoholic consumes alcohol (or at least too much alcohol) when when shouldn’t, but the reason he does this is because he convinces himself that it’s appropriate (ie: he can’t deal with real life and/or his feelings about it, so he seeks to distort his awareness and/or mood – which begins not with the drink itself, but rather a with an initial, distorted thought). A defining characteristic of an alcoholic is the habitual creation of dubious reasons to drink (or at least to drink too much).

This commercial is considered funny because, in the minds of most people, “only an alcoholic would actually believe that one of the positive benefits of beer is that it’s a necessary ingredient in the creation of people.” It allows people who actually do concoct dubious reasons to (over)indulge in alcohol to believe that they don’t – and therefore that they (somehow) are not alcoholics (ie: that their reasons to drink are valid). It allows such people to tell themselves “if I were an alcoholic, that is the kind of rationalization I would be creating. I’m not thinking anything that crazy, so therefore I must not be an alcoholic.” At that point, in that moment, whatever hesitation the person feels goes away, and he is free to once again capriciously indulge in alcohol once again.

As disgusting as it is to recognize, this commercial is targeted at alcoholics – but that’s par for the course in today’s over-taxed, over-regulated – and therefore short-sighted – mixed economy (which most consider to be capitalism – and therefore declare predatory, zero-sum behavior like this advertisement to be intrinsic to capitalism – and therefore continue to call for more of the same statism which made it necessary to begin with).