Drinking without shame: It’s your right (on Repeal Day)
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Friday, Dec. 5, is, allegedly, Repeal Day. We’ve been unable to track down the exact genesis of the venerable holiday, but it’s a liquor company’s wet-bar dream, with one company in particular -- Dewar’s -- cashing in big time on brand recognition. It has run full-page ads in the L.A. Weekly and elsewhere trumpeting the date that marks the ratification of the 21st Amendment, which ended Prohibition for good in 1933. And Dewar’s is hoping to make it impossible for anyone sound of mind (and flush with booze-impaired judgment) to order anything but Dewar’s on Repeal Day by offering the beverage (mixed or straight up) for 75 cents at a slew of L.A. bars.
Times staff writer Charlie Amter was good enough to round up the best of Repeal Day’s offerings for The Guide, here.
On another Dewar’s-related note: I keep thinking that there is some sort of beard-stroking essay to be written on Dewar’s spirited campaign to effectively change its image from a classy, shirt-and-tie, man’s-moment Scotch to the libation of choice for the young and impossibly hip. About a year ago the company deployed reps to place bar signs and coupons offering $3 Dewar’s at just about every hot and happening bar in town. A year later broke friends are casually ordering Dewar’s like it’s the most natural thing in the world to them. In that way Dewar’s has become to Scotch what Pabst is to beer. What a journey!
-- Jessica Gelt
