During Super Bowl 50, one commercial in particular stuck out to me. It was a Budweiser commercial with Helen Mirren in which she berates drunk drivers. Here is what she says:
Hello. I’m Helen Mirren, a notoriously frank and uncensored British lady. The collective we are dumbfounded that people still drive drunk. So I’ll sum it up like this. If you drive drunk, you, simply put, are a short-sighted, utterly useless, oxygen-wasting human form of pollution. A Darwin award-deserving, selfish coward. If your brain was donated to science, science would return it. So stop it. Now the chances are you’re a fun, solid, respectable human being. Don’t be pillock. Your friends and family thank you. The friends and family of other drivers thank you. Your future self thanks you. This is supposed to be fun. Cheers.
Predictably, the commercial has received praise for hilariously destroying (or some other hyperbolic phrase) drunk drivers.
With all of the things I had to attend after my DUI conviction, there was a persistent notion that I should be ashamed of myself. That all DUI convicts should be ashamed of themselves. I never bought into that. At the time, I was embarrassed about my DUI. (I’m not anymore; I’ll tell anyone I have a DUI.) But, I was never ashamed because I knew the DUI wasn’t reflective of who I am as a person.
I was probably the only one who felt that way, though. One of the counselors at my AB 541 program said, “Shame works.” I had to laugh. It seemed like an antiquated idea borrowed from certain religions. (I question how well shame has worked for them.)
I don’t believe shame works. I think shame just makes one group of people feel bad and more likely to hide their behavior, while letting the other group of people feel superior because they haven’t been caught, reinforcing that there’s nothing wrong with what they’re doing.
Drinking and driving is very common. According to MADD, people drink and drive 300,000 times a day and only 4,000 are caught. At times, it feels like the 1% that gets caught has to pay for the 99% that doesn’t get caught.
I don’t let myself fall into the trap of thinking why did I get caught when so many others don’t. However, I get very annoyed at the moralizing around drinking and driving. After watching the Budweiser commercial, I thought, the lady doth protest too much. Whenever I hear someone demeaning someone else for having a DUI, my first thought is, “That person probably drinks and drive at least once a week.” The commercial was just another way that people point fingers everywhere except at themselves when it comes to drunk driving.
DUI Blues 