The Influencer Dilemma

NOTE- This piece was written 5/22/22, roughly a year ago, and I sat on it, not knowing how it might be received or what I was hoping to accomplish by posting it. I’ve revisited it in its draft form several times over the preceding 12 months or so, wondering if I’d ever actually post it. While on vacation I caught an episode of the Blending Bourbon Podcast (the link is directly to the episode) that delved into a very important and under-discussed topic about “drinking responsibly.” I listened to this episode from David Mark Young and Dixon Dedman several times, and I thought that this was finally the time to post the original feature, without any recent editing, and releasing it into the world with no expectations. So here it is.

How does one reconcile being an influencer, fan, or enthusiast and engaging in the daily promotion (paid or not) of what is essentially an addictive substance that has the potential to be abused? Alcohol has a long history of being a destructive force in the home and the world. The temperance movement was created as a response to the continuous drunken citizenry and the resulting abuse in many relationships.

This post is not intended to encourage a return to prohibition, nothing of the sort, I’m a fan, enthusiast, and sometimes influencer. It is however my ham-fisted attempt to shine the light on some of the potential effects of my enthusiastic recommendations. Who is my audience? What are they going through in their personal lives? Is alcohol a hobby for them as it is for me? Or is it something more serious, possibly even sinister?

While I joyfully post another picture of a whiskey I am drinking lately, is someone else on the other side of the screen struggling with their hobby becoming an addiction? Is it impacting a relationship? Is it a coping mechanism to them to blunt the toils of our daily struggles? It’s easy to say it’s not my problem, post a disclaimer (DRINK RESPONSIBLY) and move on the to the next like or comment. But is it easy to say?

I see so many posts labeled PLEASE DRINK RESPONSIBLY but they feature chugging right out the bottle. Is that in fact, responsible? Now I’m no saint, I’ve been trashed, wobbled, sauced, in my cups, three sheets to the wind, and flat out drunk many times in my life, but I feel like our care and concern for others by posting that tagline “Drink Responsibly”online is disingenuous at best.

I have had to personally assess my own consumption especially coming out of the pandemic where my hobby was now my crutch to help me deal with the fear and stress of the pandemic. Actually writing those words is exactly what I’m talking about. No, it didn’t help me deal with stress, it helped me AVOID facing my fears and managing my stress. I was slowly becoming dependent on it to help get me through another day.

This is not what I want out of whiskey. I didn’t want to be on my fourth glass on a Tuesday night and thinking about my fifth or sixth one. The joy of whiskey has always been to spend time with and savor each sniff, and sip. That obsessive love of exploring whiskey, was slowly becoming a monotonous repetition of pour, drink, pour, drink, pour, drink, pour drink. One after the other, not bothering to dissect what the layers were, the notes, and the flavors was not the journey I had embarked upon all those years ago.

Hell, I managed it so well for well over 18 years, but the pandemic keeping me imprisoned in my well stocked bar, with nothing to do but drink in fear and anger was taking me down a dark path I did not wish to be on. As I’m going through all this, one would never know it by my curated instagram page, it was one post after another of what whiskey I loved and why (I take copious notes, so I had a lot of notes to reference in my postings).

I was presenting a persona of everything is fine, nothing to worry about, a defacto drink responsibly messaging without actually saying it. This is the moral and ethical dilemma for me, if I wasn’t fine, someone else also has to be going through it, and what is my online enthusiasm doing to them?

My girl likes to remind me of how stubborn I am. When I put my mind to something, I do it. I’m the weirdo that will walk 4 miles for a chicken sandwich in the rain. I’m getting that sandwich. When we did a dietary cleanse, I did it easily (not happily, but I did it) even giving up my beloved Blue Oak BBQ for a month. So she suggested that I stop drinking for awhile. So I did. First a week, then two weeks, then three weeks, then a fourth.

Now I’m not recommending everyone do this, but many do a dry February or January anyway, but medically if you’re addicted to alcohol it would be advisable to not listen to my experience but to check with your doctor before doing so.

During this cleanse, I didn’t lose my love or interest in whiskey, quite the opposite happened, it reminded me of what I loved about it in the first place. I then spent time researching yeast strains, and open air wood aging, and assessing why I loved whiskey as a hobby. I’ve returned to where I was pre-pandemic, having a glass or two and spending time with it, and with friends. Hey good for me right?

Sure, I’ve found my comfort level again, and I’m more enthusiastic than ever about whiskey. Which brings me right back to the beginning of this essay- how do I reconcile being an influencer for something that many people struggle to control? I’ve met so many wonderful people in this community, and it would pain me to lose any one of them to addiction, or ruin.

My social media is all about the joy of hard spirits. I promote things I love constantly, and I’m asked to promote all sorts of things that I don’t (and won’t). This is a business for the spirits company, a hobby for me. Free samples are awesome, until they aren’t. Setting clear boundaries and actively maintaining them is difficult, as there is the need to feed the algorithm, the need to please a brand that sent you free stuff, the need to “grow” your account. All of this things pulling a in a direction that isn’t sustainable long term, that can have a lasting impact on real people, even myself.

Drinking responsibly is important, obviously to most, but in a lifestyle hobby such as ours, what does it even mean? As of now, I have no answer to offer you the reader. I don’t know that I’ll ever stop grappling with my feelings of responsibility. I know that I have to think about my part in this industry, and do my best to act ethically and morally. I also believe that if I stop thinking about it, I’ll have stopped thinking about myself, and others and that’s simply not who I am.

Thank you for reading, and I’d love to hear your thoughts.

- Mickey Pinstripe