STAFF EDIT: Advertise responsibly

A relatively new advertising campaign for Absolut Boston vodka now plasters the newly renovated Kenmore T station, as part the a battalion of alcohol ads pervading the MBTA system that over half of the city’s youth sees every day. A recent report saying that the ads lead to dangerous underage alcohol consumption wishes to ban these ads, while the T feels they’re necessary to help meet non-fare revenue quotas and maintain financial stability. The ads are unnoticeable, surely, and influential to a degree, but at what point do they become so oppressive as to be marked dangerous to underage Bostonians?

In the same way that alcohol ads tell consumers to ‘drink responsibly,’ advertisers and clients should push alcoholic products responsibly. The complete eradication of alcohol ads would probably do little to sway underage drinking ‘- Boston is a bustling urban center, alcohol, embodied by bars, clubs and even supermarkets and liquor stores, is ‘advertised’ during any walk of any short distance. And alcohol ads are still televised, where cigarette ads are not. And with in these times of financial struggle, the T cannot be choosy about their ad revenue ‘- they likely picked the campaign that was the most lucrative, and it just happened to be from a company that makes vodka. It isn’t the T’s primary responsibility to be advocates for alcohol abstinence, but rather where they best serve Boston is in keeping fares low and service high-quality and efficient.

Cigarettes present immediate danger ‘- that is, every time someone smokes, they automatically put their bodies in danger. But drinking ‘- moderately ‘- is not dangerous, neither for those over-, under- or of-age. It’s true that underage drinking is illegal, but not just underage kids take the T, and teens who see these ads are well aware of the illegalities of drinking under the age of 21 and the negative health implications of binge drinking. Since the ads are in areas of mass transportation stations, there is no danger of drinking and driving. The bottom line is that these ads are just ads. They will have an influence on some, and none on others, and those who are most vulnerable to them are not the responsibility of the MBTA to keep in check. Banning these types of ads, as a new bill currently under consideration in the Joint Committee on State Administration and Regulatory Oversight aims to do, will only add more taboo and paranoia to the stigma of something that, if used responsibly, is not a major problem. So long as the advertisements are not overly abrasive and stay relatively discreet, as they are now ‘- showing only bottles and a few words per ad ‘- there should be no need to recall them. The T, frankly, has more to worry about.