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Ryan Williams

Ms. Boletsis-Waszczuk and Mr. Zisser

Origins High School

Switzerland

8 Jan 2019

Beer: Is It Causing An Ethical Dilemma?

Is beer causing an ethical dilemma in marketing? Beer is a popular alcoholic beverage

that's been consumed by people for thousands of years. However, beer can be addictive and

cause major health risks such as liver disease, kidney failure and even death. It's ​not very ethical

to market since in recent years “more than 80,000 people died from alcohol related death each

year in the united states”. (​https://talbottcampus.com/alcoholism-statistics/​)

Beer can be healthy in moderation, however, often times, beer secretly contains allergens

such as lactose, wheat, gluten, corn and sometimes even peanut butter, which is bad if you are

allergic to any of the following, but that's not all. According to (​/fatburningman.com​) it states

“​that the people regulating the labeling on your bottle of beer are not the very same people that

send out your tax refund.” This means that not all beers are correctly regulated and harmful

products are always getting into the making of beer. Other harmful ingredients(According to

https://fatburningman.com/toxic-ingredients-in-beer-wine-and-spirits/) in beer are Non-GMO

corn, rice, and sugar, Monosodiumglutimate, Propylene Glycol, Calcium Disodium, Natural
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Flavors, High Fructose Corn Syrup, Caramel Coloring,glyceryl monostearate, and Carrageenan.

All of these secret ingredients that could be in your favorite beer can be really unhealthy for you,

if you drink it often or if you’re a heavy drinker because it can cause really bad health problems

such as heart disease. Beer companies and beer regulators get away with this, because they are

often doing this under the table--meaning they’re trying to keep it a secret from the public.

Is beer healthy? Drinking a couple of beers won't kill you, in fact it's healthy for you.

according to

(​https://www.everydayhealth.com/pictures/ways-beer-good-you/#beer-is-heart-healthy​) “​Huge

studies have found a 25 percent ​lower risk of heart disease​ in people who drink from one-half to two

drinks daily, compared to abstainers. And alcoholic beverages that are rich in polyphenols — think

beer! — may be especially good for the heart, according to a ​2012 research review​.​ This means that

drinking a couple of beers can healthy for the heart however​ beer can have effects on the body

while consumed.” According to ​https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/truth-about-beer

they state that “Heavy alcohol consumption wipes out any health benefit and increases risk of

liver cancer,cirrhosis,alcholism,and obesity”. This means that beer or alcohol in general, has a lot

of health risks if it’s consumed too much. Beer also has negative effects on the brain. According

to ​https://www.health.com/alcoholism/effects-of-alcohol-on-the-brain​) It states “Alcohol lowers

inhibitions and clouds judgment, as well, which could lead a person to engage in risky behaviors

like having unprotected sex or driving a car while drunk. And if a person has an underlying

mental health disorder, like ​depression​ or ​bipolar disorder​, it can exacerbate symptoms and

increase mood swings”. This means that there's alot of problems that occur when you drink too

much. They also say that “these regions of the brain are slowed down, a person might feel dizzy
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and stagger when walking, have ​blurred or double vision​, and have difficulty paying attention to

things going on around them” which means that alcohol affects people in a huge way.

According to (​https://talbottcampus.com/alcoholism-statistics/​) it states “Alcohol

poisoning kills six people every day, Of those,76 percent are adult ages 35-64 and three of every

four people killed by alcohol poisoning are men” what this means that alcohol kills a lot of

people mostly in adult and middle aged men and women. Alcohol brings lots of damage to our

life in which in that case would affect us in every way.

The ethical dilemma that beer brings to the table is also drinking and driving. In 2017 about 30

people died every day according to (​https://www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving​). This is

bad because beer is bringing unnecessary death to many people to drink often. In beer

advertising, a lot of the times they show people at parties or celebrations. This beer

advertisement made in 2018(​https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzQsGL_F9_c​) shows people

celebrating and people coming together over a Budweiser. This might mean that often times

people party with beers or other alcoholic beverages which could lead to drunk driving and other

alcoholic related injuries and even death. But what's less ethical than advertising to adults?

advertising to young teens. According to

(​https://bizgovsoc2.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/the-ethics-behind-advertising-alcohol-to-the-teen

age-demographic/​) “Kids who start drinking young are seven times more likely to be in an

alcohol related crash, Teen alcohol use kills about 6,000 people each year, more than any illegal

combined drug. Car crashes are the leading cause of death for teens and one out of three of those

are alcohol related.” This means that advertising to teens can cause more serious injuries and
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more death than your avenge adult drinking. Also according to

(​https://bizgovsoc2.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/the-ethics-behind-advertising-alcohol-to-the-teen

age-demographic/​) they state “Regardless of the statistics, beer and alcoholic beverage

companies continue to bombard the American public with alcohol marketing, often placing

advertisements with youth-oriented themes in medium where audiences are predominantly

underage.” This means that beer and related dangerous alcoholic beverages can easily get to the

public especially to young kids and the adolescence. According to

(​https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2653035/​) “Two studies measured the hours of

TV and music video viewing. All measured drinking behaviour using a variety of outcome

measures. Two studies evaluated drinkers and non-drinkers separately. Baseline non-drinkers

were significantly more likely to have become a drinker at follow-up with greater exposure to

alcohol advertisements.” What this is saying is that the more teens are exposed to a certain type

of beer or other alcohol advertising the more likely they are to start drinking. The new world of

social media makes the task even harder, because even if a company can determine this for the

site where it places an ad or a video or a game, it can’t control how that content gets passed on.”

This means that sometimes companies many not able to meet a curtain requirement that the

government wants them to do.

In conclusion, beer is dangerous for people and is causing an ethical dilemma in

advertising because it causes liver cancer,cirrhosis,alcoholism, obesity,difficulty walking,blurred

vision,slurred speech,slowed reaction times,impaired memory. It also contains some allergens

such as ​lactose,wheat,gluten,corn and peanut butter and also has ​Non-GMO corn,rice,and sugar ,
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Monosodiumglutimate, Propylene Glycol,Calcium Disodium,Natural Flavors,High Fructose

Corn Syrup,Caramel Coloring,glyceryl monostearate,etc. This causes adults who drink often to

get seriously injured or lose their lives, but it's also worse amongst people or kids who drink

early on, which the affects them badly also is very addicting. This contributes to an ethical

dilemma because beer companies often advertise their product to many people despite its very

dangerous properties which causes about 80,000 people every year to die.

Citation Page
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James, Abel, et al. “BLOG.” ​Fat Burning Man,​ 16 June 2015,

fatburningman.com/toxic-ingredients-in-beer-wine-and-spirits/.

“8 Ways Beer Is Good for You | Everyday Health.” ​Stroke Center - EverydayHealth.com,​ Ziff

Davis, LLC, 16 Mar. 2015,

www.everydayhealth.com/pictures/ways-beer-good-you/#beer-is-heart-healthy​.

Zelman, Kathleen M. “The Truth About Beer: Calories, Bellies, Nutrition, and More.” ​WebMD,​

WebMD, ​www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/truth-about-beer​.

“Here's What Really Happens to Your Brain When You Drink Too Much Alcohol.” ​Health.com,​

www.health.com/alcoholism/effects-of-alcohol-on-the-brain.

“2018 Alcoholism Statistics You Need to Know.” ​Talbott Recovery​, 23 Oct. 2018,

talbottcampus.com/alcoholism-statistics/.

jean.yoder.ctr@dot.gov. “Drunk Driving.” ​NHTSA​, NHTSA, 11 Jan. 2019,

www.nhtsa.gov/risky-driving/drunk-driving​.

Budweiser. “Budweiser | Beer Country | :60.” ​YouTube​, YouTube, 30 Jan. 2018,

www.youtube.com/watch?v=zzQsGL_F9_c​).
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Silverstein, Dana. “The Ethics Behind Advertising Alcohol to the Teenage Demographic.”

Business Government Society 2,​ 9 Apr. 2012,

bizgovsoc2.wordpress.com/2012/04/09/the-ethics-behind-advertising-alcohol-to-the-teenage-d

emographic/).