Most people are familiar with the popular men’s magazine Esquire. Almost every place that sells newspapers and magazines carries it. Last month, Esquire launched its new television channel, the Esquire Network, and so far it has established itself as a channel where alcohol consumption is a dominating theme.
Of course, it’s not that surprising coming from a channel–and a magazine–that is targeted toward men and seems like it really ramps up the stereotypical, “all-American” idea of what a man should be like and what he should be interested in; that is, drinking, sports, women. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that, but the way Esquire Network seems to focus on drinking even on shows that don’t have to do with drinking is a little off-putting. It’s also laughable how many of their shows have macho names, but are no tougher than anything you might see on mainstream television.
One show, “Brew Dogs”, is very simple in its premise: two Scottish brewers travel across America looking for new and unusual ways to brew beer. This is one show where the fascination with alcohol makes sense–it’s the entire point of the series. “Best Bars in America”, a show Esquire plans to introduce in November, is another show that will obviously focus on alcohol and the consumption thereof.
But what bothered me was that even shows that have nothing to do with alcohol find a way to bring it into the spotlight. Another show on Esquire Network, “Boundless”, is a show about two Canadian endurance athletes and their travels across the world as they complete various grueling races. This doesn’t sound like a show where drinking would be mentioned at all. But as the New York Times reports,
“The hosts of “Boundless,” two Canadian endurance athletes, Simon Donato and Turbo Trebilcock, go to literally marathon lengths to gin up the gin, even in remote and unboozy locations like Angkor Wat in Cambodia. There, they enter a six-day, 230-kilometer marathon, and even in that unendurably hot and humid climate, amid chanting Buddhist monks, there is drinking. A German competitor guzzles a beer at every aid station, though most of the hard-core consumption is committed by a merry group of Indian runners who like to party.
“Guess we needed a couple more whiskeys before we started,” one of them, Manoj, says roguishly after a so-so running time on Day 1.”
My first thought while reading this was, “What sort of athlete drinks while they’re participating in an event? I thought that was something that only happened in American beer commercials.” While I’m sure that drinking isn’t the main motif of “Boundless”, it’s kind of disconcerting to hear about that kind of behavior, but it’s even more disconcerting to realize that it’s not explicitly being condemned.
“Knife Fight”, at first, sounds like a show that might have to do with actual knife fights, which are definitely not situations you’d want to be drunk for. But no, “Knife Fight” is simply just another competitive cooking show, with a gritty, tough-sounding name to give it that extra masculine twist. The way the show’s own host describes “Knife Fight” makes it clear that it’s a show that takes itself way too seriously:
“Ilan Hall, a chef and the host of “Knife Fight,” describes his series as “a bare-knuckled boxing show of a cooking competition” that pits chefs against each other in an “after-hours war zone.” (He wears a camouflage flak jacket instead of an apron.)”
But, just like with “Boundless”, it’s another show that adds to the feeling that Esquire Network is obsessed with drinking. Prior to a competition, a contestant is shown eating eggs and is quoted as saying, “Got to coat your stomach for all the booze we are about to drink.” Granted, food and alcohol being consumed together is nothing shocking, but reading this in the Times’ article made me think, “Really? Really? Are you cooking or drinking?”
There’s nothing wrong with drinking, but there is something wrong and unsettling with glorifying it to such a degree as the Esquire Network seems to do. It contributes to the problem of alcoholism, for one thing, and for another, it’s entirely unnecessary. If I want to watch a show about endurance runners, that’s what I’m expecting, not two guys going to ridiculous lengths to get drunk.
Works Cited:
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/22/arts/television/all-the-worlds-a-bar-at-channel-from-esquire.html
I enjoyed your post for a number of reasons. First, you covered an interesting topic, and being a teenage male, nothing quite captures our attention than a great edition of Esquire, with a great athlete or movie star on the cover. Second, the fact that Esquire branched out and entered the TV market is an interesting business and pop culture endeavor on their part. Last, any time an organization glorifies something that is dangerous or harmful to a young audience, it must be addressed. For Esquire to produce shows about athletes or food is wonderful, but for them to emphasize drinking to the degree that they are is concerning. Esquire knows their audience, which means they know that many of the people watching these shows are not yet old enough to drink, or still too young to know their limitations with alcohol. For them to laud drunk athletes and chefs can be very influential to their audience, which in turn can be very detrimental to their audience’s future health and safety. It is important to be conscious of when those with influence are endorsing negative actions – and to put a stop to it at once.
Esquire may be putting their fascination with drinking out of hand. People do get influenced by what they watch on television, and it is definitely an accident waiting to happen by broadcasting all of these shows. Esquire has the right to broadcast whatever they please on the other hand. I believe the reason for these shows is within an article I found about the Esquire Network. It is apparently a new channel made in part by NBC, who has already found success in bringing female viewers channels like Bravo and Oxygen. Esquire will be NBC’s new way to get to the male audience, so I think that this is the reason why their is such a stress on the manliness of Esquire’s programming.http://variety.com/2013/tv/news/nbcus-esquire-network-names-sweratka-french-harmon-to-new-roles-1200747945/
Seeing how the target audience of Esquire is men from the 20 to 40 age group I can see why they would want to advocate interests such as drinking, women, and sports. But there’s a fine line between advocating something and pushing it out there in the most blatant, obnoxious, and harmful way; their attempts at selling the idea of alcohol being one of them.
When you mentioned “Boundless” I found myself not understanding why they would need to include alcohol in the actual marathon. I mean, unless consuming alcohol has some type of benefit that aids endurance athletes I’m pretty sure consumption of liquor would have a negative effect on motor skills. The same goes for “Knife Fight”; why? “Boundless” at least has the excuse for parties but a cooking show? In what context?
This glorification of drinking is also troubling to youth as it’s not likely that they’d be purchasing Esquire magazine, but TV? That’s just unnecessarily reckless marketing.
I have not considered the amount of alcohol consumed in my cooking shows and sports oh wait thats because there isn’t. I agree alluding to booze in every show of a channel is strange and can become repellent for most viewers. I understand that Esquire is marketed toward men, but being a guy I don’t see the appeal in constantly talking about alcohol. I have other interests and enjoy things without alcohol being involved.
For me there is a limit to how much drinking is pushed in what I watch on television and in movies. It is fine to drink responsibly and in a humorous sense drinking can be very funny at times, but when that is all that can ne seen I would just avoid it. http://www.vulture.com/2011/02/drinking_on_tv_is_everywhere_b.html
I think that alcohol consumption to a various degree is okay. It’s when people are not taught what a moderation is that really ticks me off. Many adults drink alcohol and they say it’s bad for younger kids to drink, but even that is worthless because alcohol is everywhere and pretty easy to acquire. I think that this is a time for esquire to use these macho shows to teach younger kids, especially males, what moderation is and when it is okay and not okay to drink. The worst thing alcohol can do to a teen is cause him to lose brain development if drinking is done heavily or constantly. By teaching teens that two beers is good enough to throw you in jail, than we should be telling them that one is good enough before we jump straight to none. Sometime I am shocked when people and organizations ask people to completely stop a habit right away after becoming addicted because it’s freaking hard. I think the best and smartest method is slow and methodic because it reduces the habit and then allows it to completely go away. Esquire should add this to their teaching because it could really show how much they care for their younger audience and then all the parents would be fine with it and the world will be a happier place.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/04/health/04teen.html?pagewanted=all
I feel like that’s the problem with a lot of television and advertising today in general. There’s a lot of subliminal messaging that isn’t censored, and they bluntly promote harmful substances. I feel like Esquire also wants to draw in a certain type of audience and they think the way to do that is by engaging alcohol in their shows. Maybe they think it’s a useful tool and helps them gain the attention of their viewers. Gaining the attention of the audience is probably the most significant aspect of television, because once ratings go down, they lose money and they lose air time. A good example of this is the article, “CNN Jolts Ratings Race With ‘Blackfish’” by Bill Carter. The article talks about how surprised the channel was when they noticed they drew such a large young audience with their special about killer whales. The biggest shock was the rating that 688,000 viewers ages 18-49 were watching. This is a big number for any news channel for that age group and so I just think it provides a good example of how important these numbers are to the producers.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/27/business/media/cnn-jolts-ratings-race-with-blackfish.html?ref=television
I understand your point that they are overdoing it with all the alcohol, but the simple answer is, it sells. Alcohol commercials had and continue to be the best commercials. They are using the tactic to spice of the show and give it meaning to the average american. No one cares about two people running in Canada, but if you add alcohol to the mix people will start to care and find it interesting. Most men will not watch a cooking show if it was on food network. Esquire, deciding to put a cooking show on their network felt they needed to add something that men can relate to to draw them in. They knew alcohol would do the trick. Every man in America has chilled with a beer at some point in their life and I am not surprised that they are using alcohol to draw in their audiences. In fact I think no matter how stupid the show may be, people will still watch it because they can relate to it. From this article we see how important alcohol is in American culture. They say it began thousands of years ago and had a positive effect on developing social skills.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/17/opinion/sunday/how-beer-gave-us-civilization.html
I personally think that alcohol is big problem in our culture and media today. Alcohol use is so prevalent and common in TV shows, in our culture, even our college culture, that there’s a lot of mixed messages that we receive as young adults. Under-age drinking is such a common thing because of this culture that has evolved around it. I can browse through my Facebook feed of classmates now going to college and can easily find example upon example of drinking. With drinking being such a big part of our social culture, it’s not surprise that the entertainment industry is a reflection of it. Our culture can be both the reflection and a reflection of the entertainment industry. Driving as a result from drinking is so common that I’m surprised alcohol isn’t illegal. Now I’m not saying that alcohol being illegal will solve any problems etc. my point here is that it seems that stuff like alcohol and cigarettes contribute to more deaths than things like smoking marijuana. Yet the legality marijuana is much more controversial. I’m not trying to make a statement for or against any of these things but my end point here is that alcohol has become such a big part of culture that it is a bit unsettling. A search of ‘drinking driving’ in any news search finds fresh results each day (which is why I’m linking to this instead of a specific article) https://www.google.com/search?q=alcohol&oq=alcohol&aqs=chrome..69i57j0l5.1587j0j7&sourceid=chrome&espv=210&es_sm=93&ie=UTF-8#es_sm=93&espv=210&q=drunk+driving&safe=off&tbm=nws
I agree with Marc. While you have valid points Kirsten, it’s just Esquire is not targeting to you specifically. Their target audience is adult males, and adult males are attracted to beer and manliness. Take a look at this article right here from the New York Times; it speaks about what we were to expect from the Super Bowl commercials for this past year. Not shockingly, it was automobiles and beverages, particularly beer.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/23/business/media/super-bowl-ads-will-be-heavy-on-colas-beers-and-cars.html
In addition, I occasionally watch a Yankee game on the YES network (which stands for Yankees Entertainment and Sports). The target for a network pertaining to the Yankees and sports is primarily men, and the commercials are definitely male-oriented. So yes, while the Enquire channel is definitely overdoing the whole alcohol thing, it’s really just a marketing strategy in my opinion. The more men that are interested in the channel, the more success it’ll bring.
I think that while they may be heavily promoting alcohol, in the end of the day, Esquire is a business, and like all businesses, their goal is to make a profit. Esquire must have some of the best marketing people in the country, and obviously this is what sells. Similarly to what Marc and Nicolette said, their target audience, which is mainly adult men, is attracted to alcohol. Esquire is not the one doing this. Other brands as well have realized that television is a great media outlet for alcohol (http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/23/business/media/mikes-a-flavored-alcohol-brand-tries-to-widen-its-appeal.html).