Janopause – to drink or not to drink?

While it is still January and the subject of New Year’s resolutions is still relevant, I thought I’d have another look at it.

I saw a funny tweet by @wordspy on the invented word janopause: n. The practice of abstaining from alcohol for the month of January. I thought it was really clever as it really does sum up a resolution in one word. Excellent! I think it should go straight in the dictionary.

In the previous entry I spoke about how advertising reinforces the need to be healthier and diet during this month. Bearing in mind these healthier options are more expensive, you are also more likely to spend less on demerit goods. It would be interesting to have a look at what the ‘demerit’ industries are doing to maintain their sales when such a large group of people decide to cut out certain pleasures from their lives at this time of the year.

Being on the subject of janopause, let’s have a look at what alcohol companies are doing to fight the janopause disease.

David Jernigan, director of the Center on Alcohol Marketing and Youth at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health describes social media in alcohol advertising as the ‘wild west without a sheriff’. Due to all the restrictions, it is easiest to reach the younger target market online through the means of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Flickr and so forth. It is absolutely everywhere.

Articles on this have been published both beginning of last year and this year on this matter and if we look at it closer it really makes sense in many ways. Not only are the youth the future/(current) consumers, they are also the ones who are ‘invincible’ and can afford to keep drinking carelessly in January rather than going through the janopause, like the majority of us out there.

It is also funny how the healthy lifestyle ads are almost always targeted at a more mature market; therefore should we religiously stick to the janopause after our 30s and let all the youngsters consume all that alcohol?

If you find yourself trying too hard to keep away from the alcohol this month, maybe go and buy a bottle of red wine (solely for the antioxidants) to be more youthful. Or perhaps you can now use the word janopause more often to describe your present state to colleagues without having to give too many explanations as to why you are over consuming nuts, fruits and other goodies.