Re: AA Billboards

[Guest guest]

At 09:49 PM 5/4/01 -0400, Mike wrote:

>I would almost bet that billboard was paid for and decided upon by an

>individual who decided to disregard the tradition about non advertising.

There is no such tradition against advertising. This could at most

be called 'promotion rather than attraction'. There have always been

small ads in newspaper classifieds that say something like " Got a drinking

problem? We can help. Call xxx-xxxx " . The ad might or might not say it's

AA. These ads are usually taken out by the local 'intergroup' or 'central

office.' I've heard a radio commercial for AA (years ago in some small town

in north Georgia), and heard a woman in Al-Anon complaining about a

late-night TV commercial. The usual literal interpretation of the

traditions is that as long as there are no full names recognizable

faces used in such commercials, any groups or individual can take out

any ads they want for any 12-step program or group.

>Drunks are notoriously hard - headed. Mike.

> AA Billboards

>

>

>> Hi,

>>

>> When I was in town today I saw a HUGE billboard that said " Problems

>> with Alcohol? AA can help. "

>>

>> I guess they're stepping up their marketing efforts.

Perhaps the billboard owner is A Friend of Bill W.

Of course, this group would have to pay him a dollar so they could stay

within the tradition of being self-supporting - " we can't take any

handouts, we actually paid for that billboard. "

I've heard of many such incidents. One group was having a special

large meeting (or perhaps a cookout or something), and a local soft

drink distributor wanted to donate drinks. At their group conscience

they decided they couldn't accept an outright gift ( " We are

self-supporting through our own contributions " ), but they got the

distributor to accept payment of something like five cents per can,

thus staying within traditions as commonly interpreted. Of course at

this price it was still mostly a gift, but in these people's

black-and-white thinking minds they (the group) were paying for it, so

it could not be considered a gift. I was about a year in the program

and though I was a 'strong believer' I could see through the twisted

logic, and knew that if I had said anything questioning it, I'd just

get more twisted logic.

>> Hicks

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This post (except quoted portions) Copyright 2001, Ben Bradley.

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