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The vendor expos at major legal conferences are always fun to stroll, especially if you need a sugar fix. There’s enough free candy to keep your dentist busy. Branded pens, coffee mugs, and beer koozies are also in abundance.
Not long ago, I was walking in the aisles before I keynoted. It was about 10 a.m., and I came upon a tray of airline-style, plastic liquor bottles set out on a silver tray. I did a double-take. Maybe it’s a joke, and they are filled with soda? Nope, they were legit. Bacardi, Dewar’s, and Jack Daniels.
The vendor certainly knew its audience. Maybe they read the same study I did. In a profession where over 20% of licensed attorneys qualify as alcoholics, it would seem the perfect lure. There was a time when I would have rushed back to my room, ripped the valet laundry bag off the hanger, and arm-swooped all the bottles into it. With 17 years of sobriety, I simply backed away to a safe distance and watched. Who was going to partake?
Hook them in, get them smashed, and sell the product. Thirty minutes passed, but no takers. It came time for me to speak. Afterward, I wandered back. Some bottles were still there, but fewer in number. I went to lunch. Came back again, gone. Lunch drinking is more popular than breakfast drinking. I don’t put this on the vendor. It’s at the conference. It was certainly outside-the-box marketing, but do we really need that? One vendor was selling anti-aging skin cream I couldn’t afford. They talked me into it. No alcohol necessary.
Brian Cuban (@bcuban) is The Addicted Lawyer. Brian is the author of the Amazon best-selling book, The Addicted Lawyer: Tales Of The Bar, Booze, Blow & Redemption (affiliate link). A graduate of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law, he somehow made it through as an alcoholic then added cocaine to his résumé as a practicing attorney. He went into recovery April 8, 2007. He left the practice of law and now writes and speaks on recovery topics, not only for the legal profession, but on recovery in general. He can be reached at brian@addictedlawyer.com.
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