
DRY JANUARY
WHAT’S UP I’M BACK! Hi. I hope you had a great break. To no one’s surprise, I spent mine becoming one with my upholstery, permanently damaging my retinas and attention span due to digital content consumption, and recording, posting, and then quickly deleting probably 20 hours worth of TikTok content (will I ever get the courage? Only time will tell).
If you felt abandoned last Friday and expected a bunch of fun lols after a long hard week, FRANKLY SO WAS I. This edition, however, was excruciating to write, and I wanted to give it a lot of time to do the topic justice. And also, last week was sort of a nightmare, amirite?? But I’m glad I’m here now, sharing it with bright eyes on a Monday morning.
I’m kicking off our first EDITION OF 2022 with a GREAT TWEET from Pabst Blue Ribbon that was deleted by the brand,
but not before it gained a significant amount of traction online. Here it is in all its glory. (People who screenshot, and post, deleted tweets on Twitter are doing the Lord’s most crucial work.)
Pabst apologized for the tweet, stating: “We apologize about the language and content of our recent tweets.” This made me lol. They’re not sorry. I promise. I’ll tell you why.
Big Alcohol suffers sharply declining sales during the month of January.
The industry is built on the notion that people not only drink, but they drink in excess. And the month of January really doesn’t affect their bottom line all that much. The cultural fall out from Dry January, and the subsequent sober curious movement since its inception in 2013, however, certainly does. And now, Big Alcohol is shifting their business models because of this recent cultural questioning and path towards “sober curious.”
DRY JANUARY
I realize we’ve basically all been locked in our homes since February of 2020, but I’m hoping you’re all aware of what Dry January is. If you’re not, that is what I am here for. You won’t be shocked to discover it started in 2013 as a MARKETING ploy by the British charity Alcohol Change UK, to challenge people to avoid alcohol after the overconsumption often accompanied by the holiday season. The concept took off and has since become a cultural phenomenon that has spanned continents and become widely discussed as the biggest motivating factor in kick-starting a healthy new year come January 1. It appears in newspapers, influencer conversations, discussions with coworkers, and it even gets marketed by Big Alcohol itself to promote their zero-alcohol beverages.
But this wasn’t always the case. Big Alcohol used to be (and still sometimes are) *ahem* BUTTHURT over Dry January. Before all the feel good ads about Zero Proof beers, there were entire campaigns designed to encourage people to drink MORE during Dry January. Like the Triple IPA local Boston brewery Harpoon came out with called… Dry January… that was 11% ABV. More than double what an average light beer contains (5%). Or Miller64’s “Dryish January” campaign that encouraged people to drink… but maybe just lower ABV. Or when Pabst started “Wet January” this year.
But Dry January persists no matter what Big Alcohol does (suggestive tweets about it being lame and all) because it’s a challenge. And people love a challenge. I think we often confuse Dry January with all the other healthy motivating behaviors and habits that accompany the start of the new year. In reality, this “challenge” is very different - and it’s a great way to consider your relationship not only with a somewhat sordid substance. But also your relationships with marketing and the impact certain brands have on your perceptions of yourself and your habits.
As someone who has been sober for a full year (which is really not long in the grand scheme of things), I promise you this: you don’t need booze. And I fully recognize how that sounds. So I say it with so many caveats and a ton of empathy and sympathy.
Your understanding that you need alcohol to have fun, to meet people, to unwind, to relax, to celebrate, to mourn?
That is sold to you. And it’s sold to you by alcohol companies that want you to drink their product. The second that Dry January came around it gave us pause. It allowed us to reflect and it provided an opportunity for us to question why we rely so heavily on a substance that MOSTLY causes hangovers and a side effect is having a good story or two. There’s a reason the challenge and the discussion around abstaining in January persists. The conversation hasn’t ~dried up.~ It stays strong. It made its way into the Sex and the City Reboot. Celebrities are pushing zero-proof products. Books about sobriety have hit NYT best seller lists (Quit Like a Woman by Holly Whitaker).
And it stays strong because every year after the holidays have cleared and you’re sitting on your couch with that weighty feeling of “woah I drank A LOT in December” there MIGHT be a small question in the back of your mind that asks “is that really necessary?” And it’s not. That’s why there’s an entire sober curious movement going on right now. People are starting to weigh the pros and cons of alcohol. And for some there are a ton more pros than cons. Which is great! If you can enter into a healthy relationship with alcohol and it doesn’t affect you, go OFF! That’s amazing. But if you can’t, ya know what? That’s also okay. I couldn’t either. It’s one of the reasons why Dry January keeps happening, because for every person who experiences it and then moves on with their lives, there’s another few people who experience it and realize, “woah I gotta make a change.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance use - please visit https://www.samhsa.gov/ or feel free to reach out directly. I assure you, you’re never alone on this journey.
Here is a massive list of
TikTok trends happening right now:
This sound people are using for when you go from super excited to super bummed.
QUEEN CELINE IS HAVING HER MOMENT!! And has been. Her song “It’s All Coming Back To Me Now” has gone viral on TT and it’s been hitting top numbers on charts because of this too. But mostly people just pretend they’re performing the song with dramatic flair.
A sound that comedian Maggie Winters produced and now it’s everywhere is “I Want To Be Chill.”
EMOTIONAL DAMAGE.
I truly love this one. It’s a bop!
Things That Just Make Sense to the sound of Che La Luna by Louis Prima. A NOTE ABOUT THIS SONG - when I was TikToking at my parents yesterday my mom came into the room when I was listening to this sound and screams I LOVE LOUIS PRIMA!! She is Italian so it goes well with the origins of this sound.
Not really a TiKTok sound but Twee is coming back? I can’t believe these styles have names.
“You look so dumb right now.” Which is used mostly by women right now when they’re wrong about something that seems illogical but is actually right and yet… they’re aware of it. It’s a mind f.
My Hot Friends And The Boys That Made Them Cry. The sound is literally called “Women Are Too Generous”
Actors I would cast. Frankly this is the WORST trend I have EVER seen on this platform, it makes me cringe and want to pass away.
Alright, let’s dig in, shall we??
Much to discuss!
OK ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?? There will be more Friday. And every Friday as long as I am here.
ILOVEYOUBYE
