No. 861 THAT DOG WON'T HUNT!
No. 861
Jim Davidson -- NEWSPAPER COLUMN
THAT DOG WON’T HUNT!
Have you ever been amused and annoyed at the same time? These are two distinct emotions I had a while back while watching a newscast on a nearby Little Rock television station. The on-air reporter was interviewing a very attractive and charming lady who was there promoting, would you believe, the Jack Daniel’s Drinking School. After listening to her for a few minutes you would have thought that drinking Jack Daniel’s whiskey was the best thing since we started slicing bread. I was amused because of her vivacious personality and the way she was enthusiastically presenting her product. Of course, there was money involved (if not directly, indirectly), so the television station was more than willing to have her on and give her some time.
I was annoyed because the purpose of the interview, and all her comments, were aimed at increasing the sales of Jack Daniel’s. As a promotion, this company has teamed up with the Zac Brown Band to inform consumers about responsible consumption. You see, after a concert, Jack Daniel’s wants to help concert goers get home safely, especially if they have been drinking whiskey. Now here is the clincher. As part of a recently formed partnership with the band and the Jack Daniel’s Drinking School, the company will offer concertgoers the opportunity to register for free designated driver rides to and from select Zac Brown Band concerts in cities across the U.S. through BeMyDD. You can figure out what the letters stand for.
Give me a break. How many people do you suspect will register, in advance, for a free designated driver before the concert? We have a saying here in my neck of the woods that pretty well sums up this charming lady’s presentation, and why she was on our television station -- “That Dog Won’t Hunt.”
We all know that thousands and thousands of people drink and drive every day. Personally, I don’t want to be in the same car, or on the same highway, with someone drinking beer much less a graduate of the Jack Daniel’s Drinking School. From my perspective, this whole affair is just an attempt to take us further down the slippery slope that kills thousands of people in our country each year through alcohol-related traffic accidents.
Recently I read an article printed in The Huffington Post titled, “Alcohol-Related Deaths Kill More Than AIDS, TB or Violence,” according to the World Health Organization. Because we now live in a global society, please allow me to give you some statistics from this highly respected organization. Approximately 2.5 million people die each year from alcohol-related causes. You know, that’s about the population of my home state of Arkansas. In my mind I could see myself driving more than 300 miles from one end of our state to the other without seeing another human being. In some way, they had all been killed because of alcohol consumption. The harmful use of alcohol is especially fatal for younger age groups, and alcohol is the world’s leading risk factor for death among males aged 15-59, the report found.
We live in a free country and we can make our own choices. The thing that annoyed me is that interviews of this type only give one side of the issue and seldom, if ever, give the other side, and certainly not the consequences. Helping people live a successful and fulfilled life is what I’m all about and this means making good and wise choices, even if pointing things out like my topic today may be misconstrued. There are times in each of our lives when we just need to say, “That Dog Won’t Hunt.”
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(EDITOR'S NOTE: Jim Davidson is a public speaker and syndicated columnist. You may contact him at 2 Bentley Drive, Conway, AR 72034. To begin a bookcase literacy project visit www.bookcaseforeverychild.com. You won’t go wrong helping a needy child.)
