Octagon alcohol promotion

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By auk on Fri, 6 Nov 2009
Octagon | alcohol | responsible drinking | Your Town: Dunedin

The Octagon bar managers are responsible hosts ... Yeah, right.

The promotion in today's ODT (Thursday, November 5th) offers a $6 taxi voucher to patrons who buy 6 alcoholic drinks within 4 hours. In my opinion that's binge drinking they're promoting.

There's also that law prohibiting alcohol sales to any drunk person. It would be difficult to argue that any patron buying themselves drink #6 was sober.

Possibly the Octagon bar managers have redefined "a drunk" as "a person with no money left to buy more booze"? I hope the Dunedin liquor licensing authorities stop this promotion.

And the bigger issue: it's time New Zealand stopped believing this wretched propaganda that drinking alcohol is fun and sophisticated. Look around the Octagon at 2 a.m. Sunday morning... it's only sad losers who need to get boozed to socialise.

We taxpayers pay the costs of cleaning up the mess.

How could a responsible promotion be run in the Octagon?

Keep the free food and live bands. But limit the volume to 75 dB max. Why? Because research shows the louder the noise, the more people drink. Obvious, really. If you have to yell to talk to the people at your table, you stop trying to hold a conversation and just sip your drink instead.

Keep the price of alcoholic drinks the same as always. It's irresponsible to encourage patrons to drink more alcohol by lowering the price. But promote non-alcoholic drinks- e.g. $2 lattes, $1 lemon lime & bitters.

Keep the taxi voucher promotion: make it that buying any drinks (including non-alcoholic) to a total value of $24 gets you a taxi chit. After one or two alcoholic drinks with food, many people will still be below the legal alcohol limit for driving but it's safer for them and everyone else if they take a taxi home.

Try it folks. You'll attract a crowd, and they'll still be happy at the end of the evening. Half the alcohol means twice the fun.

 

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Drink promotion

Submitted by pitchblack on Fri, 15/01/2010 - 3:52pm.

This promotion clearly encourages a bar/pub crawl. If the recipients are bar hopping how can staff keep an eye on whether or not a patron has been drinking too much?

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Octagon alcohol promotion

Submitted by auk on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 8:46pm.

Strangely enough, the repeat advertising for the Octagon alcohol promotion (ODT Thursday 12th November) does not reflect the bar owners' claim that "non-alcoholic drinks do count towards the $6 taxi credit". Once again, the advertising was $4 (for an alcoholic drink), 6 drinks, $24 total cost. 4 x 6 = 24. I'm relieved to read in today's ODT that there have been a number of complaints and that the DCC and police are concerned about this promotion. It is most interesting that the Octagon bar owners did not consult the appropriate authorities before starting this promotion...
Advertising sale price alcoholic drinks is (obviously) trying to attract people to come to drink alcohol. If the Octagon bar-owners were really promoting socialising, rather than just trying to make money, they would retain the full normal price for alcoholic drinks while reducing the price of non-alcoholic drinks. Will we see an advertisement in the ODT next Thursday that advertises half-price non-alcoholic drinks on Thursday evenings? With no reduction in the price of alcoholic drinks? I doubt it.
An alcoholic drink as sold in a bar is likely to contain more than one "standard drink" of alcohol. For example, a 330 ml bottle of 4.5% alcohol beer contains 1.1 "standard drinks", and a 150 ml glass of wine contains about 1.5 "standard drinks". New Zealand's present drinking guidelines recommend that men should drink no more than 6 standard drinks and women no more than 4 standard drinks on any one occasion. Several days a week should be alcohol-free. You can read the Alcohol Advisory Council of NZ (ALAC) guidelines at www.alcohol.org.nz. The Australian National Health and Medical Research Council recommends that men or women drink no more than four standard drinks on a single occasion.
The Octagon bar promotion does not limit the number of alcoholic drinks per person. Anyone, man or woman, who buys six alcoholic drinks to get that promotional taxi chit is virtually certain to have drunk more than the ALAC guidelines. It's not just my opinion that says: that's binge drinking, The Octagon bar owners may claim non-alcoholic drinks do count towards the six-drink taxi-chit promotion. But, encouraging safe drinking needs more than just allowing people to buy non-alcoholic drinks.
Will the Octagon bar owners alter their six-drink taxi-chit promotion to encourage safe drinking? Will they allow no more than two standard alcoholic drinks to contribute to the six-drink taxi-chit promotion, with the remaining four drinks required to be non-alcoholic?

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Octagon Bars

Submitted by Greenhouse on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 7:56pm.

Great idea, particularly as [the drinks] can be also non-alcoholic. Well done. Good to see some initiative.

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Misinformed about Octagon bars

Submitted by surfsmurf on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 11:26am.

The six drinks do not have to be alcoholic so yes you can have a latte or some lemon lime an bitters.  I myself went along and enjoyed the free entertainment and great food. There was no drunken debauchery as your previous reader suggests, we were all home in bed before the clock struck 12 and at work making money and paying our taxes today. Not out brawling and vomitting in the streets at 2am. I think she/he has got us confused with the students. It's time the DCC realised that we aren't all binge drinkers, some of us are quite capable of knowing when we have had enough to drink and having an enjoyable time.

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Octagon bars

Submitted by rip1 on Fri, 13/11/2009 - 9:44am.

Last night I headed down their after work to support their initative for a quiet few drinks with work colleagues. There was no excessive alcohol drinking but there were a lot of laughs. We were all home by 9.30pm ready for work this morning. Before people go off and criticise what the bars are doing, why do they not head down there themselves and have a drink. They might just be pleasantly surprised how civilised and sensible the majority of people in this world are and they may even just enjoy themselves as well.

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Octagon bars

Submitted by DreichMcCulloch on Fri, 06/11/2009 - 4:01pm.

So, 75 dB for live bands, eh? A or C weighted? Fast/Slow/Peak? Measured where? Normal conversation levels in a moderately busy bar would exceed that in any circumstances.

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Octagon bars

Submitted by Octagonbars on Fri, 06/11/2009 - 12:53pm.

Good to know the advertising has been seen. Thanks for your suggestion regarding the non-alcoholic drinks.

Non-alcoholic drinks do count towards getting the $6 Taxi Credit, so feel free to come and enjoy a few lemonades and enjoy the variety of live music that will be on show in each of the octagon outlets.

I am sure you will be able to find something to suit your taste. Glad you liked the free food and assistance with your taxi fare as well.

Kind Regards

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