Journey to the Sunnyside

Hey, everyone. Welcome back to another one of these ten minute Mondays, and yesterday was the Super Bowl. In today's episode, I wanna point out something that you probably didn't notice while you were watching the game. And it's not because you weren't paying attention, but because the whole game in many respects is designed so you actually don't even notice. And once you see what I'm talking about, you kinda can't unsee it.

Let me start with some numbers. Depending on the dataset, just over half of Americans drink in some regard. Some surveys put it somewhere around 54, which is the most recent Gallup poll. Others slightly higher. But the point is, it's barely the majority.

Now this audience is quite aware, but if you were to ask most people on the street, they would guess that number to be somewhere around 70%, even 80%, possibly higher because when you're watching, say, the Super Bowl, going to parties, walking through restaurants, it kind of feels like everyone drinks. But here's what's actually true. Nearly half of the country doesn't drink at all, and that number has been dropping really fast. However you want to measure it, drinking rates are in steep decline. So here's the interesting question.

If drinking rates are falling off of a cliff, why did yesterday feel like the biggest celebration of alcohol alongside football in American culture? You see, that's not an accident. That's actually sophisticated psychology. Let me show you how it works. The alcohol industry generates hundreds of billions of dollars every single year in The United States.

And here's the part that's fascinating. A small percentage of drinkers account for a disproportionate share of the consumption. And in fact, I've read stats that have said 10% of drinkers account for 50% of all alcohol consumed. So the heavy, regular drinkers generate most of the revenue. Now I'm not saying that to judge anyone.

I'm saying it because it explains everything about what you saw yesterday. So when you watch those Super Bowl commercials, you have beach scenes, you have back in the nineties, the Clydesdales, the celebrities, the friends laughing, the perfect cold beer. Those actually weren't made for the huge portions of Americans who don't drink. They were made to create a perception, a feeling, a sense of normal. And here's the psychology: If you can make something feel universal, people stop questioning whether it's right for them.

They just assume it's what people do. And that is the game. Think about what those commercials actually showed you. Not a single person drinking alone, not one person on their third or fourth drink, not anybody waking up groggy the next day with regret. Every ad showed the best version, the moment of connection, the celebration, the nostalgia, the belonging, and, of course, the fun.

And look, those moments, they're real. I'm not saying that they're lying. I'm basically saying that they're showing one specific slice and making it feel like the whole story. It's kinda like if every car commercial only showed that moment that you drive off the lot. Never the oil changes, never sitting in traffic, never the insurance bill or the fender bender.

You'd think that driving was just pure joy all the time. Now that's not manipulation. That's just marketing. But it's really good marketing. Because here's what happens when you watch the game.

You see the ads. You're at a party where alcohol is everywhere, and your brain kind of quietly concludes, hey. This is normal. This is what everybody does. Except the data, it tells us a completely different story.

A huge portion of the population simply isn't drinking. And those who do, most drink occasionally and don't think about it all that much. But you wouldn't know it from watching all those ads yesterday. So here's where the psychology gets really interesting. Let's say you're somebody who drinks a few times a week, Maybe most weekends, maybe you have a couple beers watching football, wine with dinner, you know, drinks at a social event.

If you saw yesterday's commercial, you probably thought, yep. This is normal. This is the Super Bowl. This is what everybody does. But here's the thing.

If you drink a few times a week, you're probably not in that average. You're more likely in the higher end of the spectrum. And we don't even realize it. I know I didn't realize it. Because a big portion of that percentage really doesn't drink all that much.

And I'm not saying because you or I or anybody has a problem, not because drinking is bad, but because the actual median American drinks far less than the commercials suggest. And that version of quote unquote normal doesn't really match reality. So as I mentioned, once you see it, you kinda can unsee it. And once you see that disconnect, you start noticing it everywhere. You notice that people in the commercials are always on drink one or two, never five or six.

You notice that they're always laughing and connecting, never arguing, never checking out. And you notice the messaging is always about celebration and fun and never about habit or escape or just, this is what I do on a Tuesday. So you start to realize they're not really showing me reality. They're showing me an ideal. And many people catch on to this, but you still watch it and kind of follow along.

They show this so consistently that even subliminally, it becomes reality. And what that is, that's world class psychology. Now, here's why I think this matters. It's not whether drinking is good or bad. It's not whether you should or you shouldn't.

It's about whether you're making your decision or whether you're kind of operating on this perception that was carefully constructed for people who drink on a regular basis. But if you realize how far off that perception is from reality, it then begins to change the questions. It's no longer, what do normal people do? Because we look for cues on how we can benchmark ourselves. And one of the cues that we look at is in the advertising.

Instead, we need to flip that question to, what do I actually want? And that's a much more interesting question. So here's my invitation this week. Not a big change. Just take notice.

Notice how often alcohol shows up in your media. Notice what it's always associated with. And then take notice if there's a gap between what the ad shows and what actually happens in your own experiences when you drink. And notice if your perception of normal matches the data or if it matches the marketing. Because here's the beautiful thing.

Once you see how the psychology works, you're not immune to it, but you're also not unconscious to it either. And by doing so, you get to decide what's true for you. That's the shift. Not the drinking to not drinking, but from unconscious to conscious, from assumption to choice. And honestly, that's more powerful than any commercial could ever be.

Alright. Thanks for hanging out with me today. Pay attention this week. You might be surprised what you notice. And until next time, cheers to your mindful drinking journey.