Florida Criminal Defense Blog

Was it fair for the American Beverage Institute to use the image of Lindsay Lohan as an example of irresponsible drinking?

Legally, the answer appears to be yes, it was a public domain photo. And the PR value sparked by the ad and associated free media coverage pretty much makes the answer a resounding yes.

The message of the ad, according to Sarah Longwell of the American Beverage Institute, an industry trade group that advocated safe, responsible, and legal drinking, is to make the distinction between law abiding legal alcohol consumption, and the image of irresponsible drunk drivers, aka Lohan.

It is nice to see some continued backlash against the nation’s creeping DUI laws.

And this kind of publicity can only help promote the idea that everyone who has a drink or two and drives home is not a criminal. This is something MADD does not accept, with their continued drive towards a zero tolerance world.

Following up on the creeping DUI laws watch, today MADD came out against drunk driving in a video game.

If it wasn’t clear before that MADD is an organization that has completely lost it’s way, this should be clear evidence. Not only is it a game, but anyone who has ever played, seen or heard about the GTA series understands that, in the range of bad behavior available to the player in this violent fantasy world, drinking and driving doesn’t even warrant a mention.

And for now, I will even ignore the snippy reference to drunk driving as a violent crime. That’s elves’ beat.