Booze Blues

hangover

The hangover – lots of interesting ways to describe it: “I have post party trauma”; “someone slipped me a bad ice cube”; “suffering the wrath of grapes”; “the high cost of low living” and my favorite, “I was over served.”

No matter how you describe it, over indulgence can be painful the morning after. So, as a public service effort on behalf of my readers, I scoured the web for solutions.

First, how does it happen? Aside from the fact that you drank too much (duh), alcohol in large amounts creates a diuretic effect. The body will try to replenish the loss of liquid, often sending a message in the form of dry mouth. According to a researcher at George Mason University, “the body’s organs will attempt to replenish their own water, usually stealing water from the brain…” Hence, the headache.

While there doesn’t seem to be a sure fire cure, there are lots of remedies. They work by providing chemicals your body needs. Eggs, for example contain cysteine, an amino acid that helps your liver. Potassium, fructose, sodium and, of course, water are beneficial the next day.

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Southern Comfort Ad – Revisited

“Whatever’s Comfortable” is the name of the campaign by Brown Forman’s Southern Comfort brand. I blogged about it on August 4th of this year and the comments, nearly all of which are positive, keep coming.

So, I decided to revisit the ad via a conversation with Mark Bacon the Global Brand Director for Southern Comfort.

Like this blog, the feedback they have gotten from consumers has been overwhelmingly positive and is resulting in “significant increases in consumer takeaway.” I think that’s because their target consumer leans toward advertising that is real and doesn’t need the typical models they can’t relate to. According to Mark, “this ad is about it’s cool to be who you are.”

The power of the work from Wieden + Kennedy comes though not only in terms of the message but also the high production value of the ad. The strut, the dog, the shoes, and especially, the song — Hit or Miss by Odetta — with the lyrics, “I gotta be me.” I wish they had been one of my agencies.

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Bartender Apps: A Review

It’s the season for entertaining and parties and many people like to keep the serving of libations as easy as possible, limited to beer, wine or liquor with a few easy mixers.

But, there are many who like to find an interesting new concoction or serve a classic and fun cocktail that takes some effort. Mixing drinks has become the liquid side of the foodie culture.

One approach is to do what the professionals do and browse recipes from the Gary Regan books, or go to Bartender.com and download some.

Then I came across an article in Gizmodo about The Best Drinking Apps and off I went looking for iPhone and Android apps. What I learned right off the bat was that in the iTunes store alone there are hundreds. So, the next stop was to scour the Internet and see what was being reviewed and recommended.

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