These latest ads go for good sense and good humour, indicating it's okay to drink but cool to show that you can be sensible.
My jaundiced view is drinking before driving is such a demented lottery of chance that you're better off abstaining if you know you have to drive.
It's unbelievable the calculations that go through people's heads.
They weigh up amount of alcohol, food and length of time between drinks to somehow, supposedly precisely, calculate how much more they can drink. It's such an incredible game of chance that it amazes me people put not only their livelihoods, but their lives and other lives, to such an abstract idea.
As has just been demonstrated, Star Trek actor Chris Pine did not appear intoxicated when he left that Methven pub after wrapping up filming, but now he's got a day in court. Even Captain Kirk kept his intake to one shot of Saurian brandy when he'd sneak down to Dr McCoy's lab.
It is hard to abstain in an evening, because you feel disconnected. I don't drink at all now, which is a whole other story.
And I guess you always know you can have one moderate drink if you're the driver.
But I think you are really spinning the barrel of that revolver once you start doing that mental drinking versus food versus time calculation.
Our court reporter has seen plenty in court who can't do the maths, just as the Ashburton court reporter will observe with Pine. And you know why?
Because, to continue the maths metaphor, there are too many unknown variables.
