Mouthing Off | Why Dry January is a silly social campaign and ‘no-lo’ drinks are pointless
Andrew Sun asks that with alcohol consumption at record lows in many places, why do we need Dry January and no- or low-alcohol drinks?
Dry January is upon us again, a time of year when people who feel the need to join a hashtag movement promise to nobody in particular that they will abstain from alcohol for an entire month.
In other words, they’ll be engaging in performative brags on social media and being a total sanctimonious jerk to everybody else just to make us feel a bit more inferior.
That’s right. There is absolutely no reason for continuing this silly social campaign. Alcohol consumption is at an all-time low in most Western countries. The wine market is down internationally. Pubs are closing and more university-age youngsters are self-defining as non-drinkers.
We need Dry January like we need a new campaign discouraging doctors from using bloodsucking leeches as a first-choice treatment method. Honestly, as a social cause, Dry January is so 2019.
As evidence that boozing has fallen so precipitously from our vice radar, even Carlsberg has decided to jump on what is being termed the “no-lo” bandwagon, or no and low alcohol beverages.
The brewery’s Hong Kong office sent out a press release this week to say it is celebrating Dry January by launching a whole range of alcohol-free beverages for this month and beyond.
Among the products are Italian beer Poretti Zero, German beer Erdinger Alkoholfrei, Hong Kong pale ale Young Master Zero, and Carlsberg’s 0.0 beer. Beyond beer, there are mixers, tonics and a Hong Kong-inspired salted lime soda.