If you watched this year’s Super Bowl, then you might have seen the Budweiser commercial which included a lovable puppy who was lost and found. This heartwarming ad was fun to watch, and it is safe to say that it made millions of people simultaneously say, “aww.”  However, this ad also makes one wonder: should a product that kills tens of thousands of Americans every year be allowed to advertise on national television?

Alcohol is a mind-altering beverage that changes mood and behavior and can make it harder for a person to think clearly and move with coordination. Alcohol can affect the parts of the brain that control movement, speech, judgment, and memory and can cause memory loss and involuntary actions.

In 1971, tobacco advertisements were banned in radio and television by Congress through the Public Health Cigarette Smoking Act. Before 1996, alcohol companies had voluntarily banned alcohol advertising on television for liquor products. On November 7, 1996 the liquor industry lifted its voluntary ban on advertising on television after a liquor company called Seagram defied the ban.

Alcohol can cause a variety of short and long-term health risks, which include throat, breast, and other types of cancers, alcoholism, violence, alcohol poisoning, risky behaviors, alcohol dependence, and more reports the Center for Disease Control (CDC). Excessive drinking is responsible for 1 in 10 deaths among adults between the ages of 20-64 years old on average. Excessive alcohol use was responsible for approximately 88,000 deaths each year in the United States from 2006 – 2010, and is also responsible for 25 percent of all deaths among 20 to 39-year-olds. The numbers are not pretty, are they?  No, but the puppy in the Budweiser commercial was, so it’s fine, right?  Wrong.

It could be argued that restricting alcohol companies from advertising would infringe their freedom of speech, but, if a man yells “Fire!” in a crowded movie theater when there is no fire, is that freedom of speech? No! The man is risking other people’s safety for his own pleasure and is committing an illegal action. While alcohol is not illegal, some uses of it are, like driving while intoxicated. So if alcohol causes deaths, what makes it worse?

Alcohol companies should be under the same restrictions as cigarette companies and should not be allowed to advertise on television.