this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2023
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Mildly Infuriating

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I have a friend who’s alcohol consumption has gotten out of control. Me and his other friends/family are planning an intervention and so I’ve been doing a lot of research/reading on the topic.

NEVER and I mean NEVER have I seen so many fucking ads for alcohol in my LIFE. Instagram? 15 ads in a half hour of scrolling reels. YouTube? Ads. Google results? Ads. Twitter? Ads.

It’s fucking everywhere and it’s SICK. I’m researching how to help someone stop drinking and I’m getting inundated with ads for anything from gin, beers, vodkas and more. I can’t even imagine having an alcohol issue and trying to find help for myself with the web being this way.

It’s fucking sick.

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[–] [email protected] 117 points 1 year ago (2 children)

You can turn off targeted ads on most platforms so the ads you get are useless.

But you are right, when searching for anti drinking info ads for drinking shouldn't appear. I seem to remember there was a alcohol shop that was giving discounts for drinks if you gave them your sober token things you get.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 1 year ago (5 children)

A lot of bars will give you free drinks if you give them your sobriety coin from AA.

[–] [email protected] 49 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Unethical life pro tips: visit AA meetings to get sobriety coins and exchange them for free drinks.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can probably just buy the coins online lmao

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (3 children)

But they would not be free.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

AA sourced sobriety coins cost a LOT trust me. You dont ever want to have to find out. Not that they charge you for the coins (they do not), but whatever landed you in there likely cost you more than some online coins would, is my point.

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[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (3 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

it's a big world. Any conceivable promotion you could think of us being done in at least a few places. Can't imagine its common though

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago

I’ve definitely heard of bars offering free non alcoholic drinks to DD’s but I can’t imagine any trying to get AA coins in exchange for alcohol that’s crazy.

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[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Holy hell, that's straight up evil if true. I hope the bad PR ran them out of business.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

You can buy the coins for as little as £0.75 each (~$1) https://www.recovery12.co.uk/newcomer-aa-medallions-67-c.asp Then go to a bar and get a drink for almost nothing.

😀

[–] [email protected] 105 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (6 children)

I had 2 interventions in my life and neither worked. In fact, they made it much worse for me.

I suggest that you go to AlAnon and learn a bit about alcoholism before trying anything (btw, AlAnon is not AA, but is a program to help non-alcoholics understand what they're dealing with.)

Your friend is lucky to have you. Don't give up on them. It truly is hellish, and they'll need your support.

[–] [email protected] 37 points 1 year ago (6 children)

I’ve found with my own addictions that forcibly stopping one just causes a different one to start up.

The real solution for me has been healing trauma, resulting in baseline consciousness not being painful.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 1 year ago

Most alcoholics use alcohol to run from difficult, unprocessed emotions. I was one of them.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (7 children)

AA always gave off bad vibes to me because of the whole "surrender to a higher power" shtick

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[–] [email protected] 97 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Shit like this is why I use ad blockers and route all my home network traffic through a Pi Hole.

If Google gets their way with their evil "Web Environment Integrity" bullshit this is going to get so. Much. Worse.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The whole internet at that point would be pretty much 100% ad and 100% unusable at that point with the "wEb InTeGrItY" bullshit they're pushing.

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[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (9 children)

I quit smoking years ago and I really felt like the world wanted me to quit. Indoor smoking at restaurants was being banned. No more smoking section on flights. Movies were no longer depicting everyone with a cigarette in their mouth all the time like they did in the 60s. Many hotels stopped offering smoking rooms. Nicotine patches and gum were available to help.

I felt like trends in the world were behind me and it helped.

Alcohol is a totally different story. Alcohol is not being banned. It is still something almost everyone does. It is allowed at restaurants and virtually everywhere else. Everyone I know drinks. They haven’t cracked down on advertising in the same way. Hotel rooms have booze in the room for you. Airlines bring you drinks. There are no OTC quitting aids.

If someone has an alcohol problem and needs to quit, they’re really going to have a much harder time than quitting smoking.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Unfortunately, the medications that help with alcohol withdrawal are somewhat dangerous in their own right and need to be fairly tightly controlled. Delirium tremens (the shakes) from withdrawal are usually managed with benzodiazepines like Valium for emergent use and Ativan for prolonged control. The other main maintenance drug for alcohol withdrawal is Librium, and that one is also a benzodiazepine. It would be amazing if there were safe OTC options, but because of the serious damage alcohol does and the dangerous nature of withdrawal from it, it really needs to be closely medically managed. Opiate withdrawal sucks....alcohol withdrawal can very easily kill you outright.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (3 children)

I just had my 2 year sobriety birthday this month and I completely agree with you, however, I do think the culture in America is shifting. Millennials aren’t drinking AS much and Gen Z much much less. The social pressure to drink is waning somewhat and I live in a state that has the most drinking per capita in the country.

There’s a lot of N/A beers that have gotten much better to give people quitting an alternative (like nicotine gum or patches). Long way to go but I do think it’s trending in a positive direction for people struggling. I understand this isn’t something some people feel comfortable with - I was very hesitant to try one for the first time after quitting because I wasn’t sure if it would spark the urge to drink real beer more but it’s been great for me.

I don’t see a world where alcohol is restricted as much as public smoking but having alternatives is a big thing for me to feel less awkward in drinking social settings where i still feel like I’m participating in a healthy way for me.

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[–] [email protected] 46 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Happened to me when I quit drinking. It was so engaging. Suddenly every other ad online is for hard liquor, too drastic to have been a lot of coincidences lining up.

It's less Google fault directly, more that finding sobriety terms is part of the alcohol manufacturers SEO/ad words strategy. Which is absolutely disgusting.

I hope your intervention goes well, it wouldn't have worked well on me for sure so I hope your friend has more grace than I did when I was drinking.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

We can still blame google for not low prioritizing alcohol ads when people search for sobriety.

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[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago

Don't do one of those "5vs1" interventions! All it will do is make your friend think you are "ganging up" on him. Talk with him one on one, make your other friends do the same with some time in between.

[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 44 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sending mixed signals to programmers

[–] [email protected] 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)
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[–] [email protected] 38 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Why privacy matters, reason #854203

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Exactly. "I have nothing to hide". No shit. They know more than you

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago

You think i close the door on the bathroom because shitting is illegal?

Best way to reply to that

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yeah I learned stuff was spying on my voice because I was talking to my wife about how I need to take a break from drinking for a bit to recalibrate my habits and then for several days literally nothing but alcohol ads. No searches were made.

If they can’t resist doing this then maybe they shouldn’t be allowed to advertise alcohol.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (11 children)

It's possible that she looked up information about cutting down on drinking, and because you're connected in the ad network system, you also got ads from it. They like to learn who is connected to who and target ads that way. Facebook is, as you might predict, one of the most notorious.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 1 year ago

Your friend is lucky to have you. Good luck, I hope everything works out for the best.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Sorry for spamming, i already wrote this in response to another comment, but i kind of find this important for everyone:

First thing everyone should do on a new phone ( or old phone, any phone )

  1. go to Internet & Network Settings

  2. Enter "dns.adguard.com" for Private DNS

  3. Profit: never see ads anywhere on your phone. Not in apps and in no browser.

It's as simple as that. That's all you need, in order too block ads globally.

Iirc there are different DNS servers from adguard with custom filters. Some are more strict and others more loose on the blocking.

This instruction is for Android, since it's what i use, but I'm sure, similar setting exists in iOS.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It should be noted that setting Adguard as your DNS will allow Adguard to track the domains you visit. The latest info I can find is that a lot of their team is still located in Russia, which makes them susceptible to government demands regardless of their intentions.

DNS adblocking should be the last resort. On Android there are many ways to do system wide local adblocking (with and without root). Don't know about iOS. Alternatively you can do network level blocking with something like a pi-hole.

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[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Switch to Firefox, duckduckgo, don't use google of at least turn off personalized ads

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't think they're looking for solutions. I think they're imagining their friend and others in their friend's situation that decide to do something about their drinking problem and find that as a cruel joke they're now inundated with alcohol ads everywhere they go. They're pointing out yet another example of how capitalism without guardrails sucks.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

It does go to show the necessity of adblocking software though. It's not just a trivial convenience at the expense of sites' ad-revenue, it's necessary for online safety.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The level of advertising on the internet is why I haven't been without an adblocker since the early 2000's. And when the ads aren't displayed, you also get to see just how much god damn space is devoted to them, with all the now empty space left on any given page.

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Just as a note to OP, some levels of alcohol addiction are so deep that they cannot be halted at once without risk to the addict’s health or even life. If you suspect your friend could be that far gone, it requires medical intervention.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (7 children)

Gonna hijack this comment to say I was a major alcoholic drinking bottles of vodka every day, always drinking. Never not drinking. You get the idea. A real piece of shit. Anyway I got drunk and did a bunch of acid my friend had and decided while totally fucked on it that I had to quit. A few days later after talking to some family I called my doctor and he referred me to a nearby hospital with a separate chemical dependency area and they helped me medical detox (outpatient at home) and it is the single best thing I ever did for myself. 7 and a half years sober. Life has only got better since then. I had almost nothing, barely showed up to work, blew all my money on alcohol and other drugs, and now after years of hard work I own my own small business and am doing well for myself.

Anyone currently struggling with alcoholism, ask some friends and family for help, speak to your doctor, and get better. You know you want to.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago

The amount of alcohol and gambling ads seem to have shot threw the roof over the last few months. I'm not a fan.

[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

Preaching to the choir. I’ve been sober for years at this point and had a poly substance abuse issue but alcohol was always one that would always come back around in my life. It’s literally everywhere and YOU’RE the weird one if you don’t drink. Alcohol is a literal poison and it’s so in your face no matter what you do. Things that helped me were friends and family (sounds like you’re a good friend, I don’t know you but I’m proud of you for leading the charge on trying to get your friend help), naltrexone, and completely removing myself from situations where alcohol was present, and leaving behind people that didn’t respect my sobriety.

It was a lot of hard work, I fucked up a few times. Just be there for your buddy, it sounds like you already are but yeah. Come from a place of concern, ask them if they’re concerned about their own drinking and figure out what’s goin’ on. Also, don’t be offended if you get told to fuck off this first go around. If he’s not ready and is still in denial, you will not change his mind and you will be setting everyone up for failure here. If he’s not ready for the help, there’s nothing you can do other than express your concern about alcoholism, his physical and mental health and let it stew. You may find that he chooses alcohol over his relationships at this stage in his addiction. If he wants to come forward and get help, then that’s great.

Also, sorry for the rant. Maybe you didn’t want advice haha.

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[–] [email protected] 21 points 1 year ago (3 children)

"Why should I care about privacy? I have nothing to hide, who cares if they target advertising at me?"

Not to make light of your situation, but if anyone in the crowd has said this to themselves at some point, the answer to why they should care is "shit like exactly this." This is a prime example of "not illegal stuff to hide but targeted advertising actively making your life harder purposefully in an attempt to manipulate you into buying their products."

Take back your privacy, use alternate solutions and avoid shit tier companies that attempt to take it from you for their own financial gain, even at the expense of your own financial ruin. Make "unsecure" a black mark companies have to crawl their way out of or else their products won't be used or bought. Fuck them. Is it possible to gain 100% anonymity online? Likely, no, but you can put in a little effort to stop it as much as you can, and use adblockers of course to block what they would send. There is effort to it to be sure, but it is worth it, and the more people take their privacy seriously the more tools will be developed, improved, etc.

Again sorry to sort of hijack your post for this comment, that sucks and fuck whoever is serving you (and by extension actual alcoholics seeking recovery) those targeted ads. I just feel it's necessary to point out real world examples of "this is why" because when you're just talking about privacy as a concept people always pretend that since they aren't a Sicario for Sinaloa they have no reason to care. You do, something as "small" (legal) as this is a reason.

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[–] [email protected] 20 points 1 year ago

There’s actually a setting at least on Facebook to specifically disable alcohol and gambling based on some settlement a few years ago but they hid it really welll

[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Alcoholic here. Super bowl ads are toxic. All hail the protective ad blocker.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Facebook briefly offered you the option to select topics you didn't want to see advertised at all, I chose alcohol and politics. Want to guess what 90% of my ads on that garbage site are?

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

Gambling and alcohol ads have to be among the most unethical form of marketing in existence, yet, it really is everywhere. These companies (Google/Meta/Twitter) are even showing these ads to minors on an ongoing basis.

I couldn't imagine being an addict or former addict and having to be exposed to this mindfuck.

I would encourage everyone to actively find ways to block ads, even if solely to preserve one's mental health.

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[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

If you don't block ads and you type things into searches about alcohol you will indeed get a lot of alcohol ads. The thing is though, I never got them as frequently when I was still drinking, or maybe never noticed them. Also I once got served ads for beer on a page about quitting booze lol, it seems pretty intentional even though it's most likely not that targeted.

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