Why I Really Like This Commercial

(to see the video for the commercial in the above image, click on this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aNu0FDxJezo)

First off, there’s a lot of reasons why I shouldn’t like this commercial. I don’t like alcohol (the commercial is called “Tonight We Tanqueray”). Several reasons:

A) The only time I’ve ever gotten sick in the past 5 years is when I’ve had a combination of too much alcohol and too little sleep.

B) Alcohol consumption is related to too many diseases. See my post on “How to Live Forever”.

C) I hate the taste. I much prefer vanilla milkshakes, for instance. (See my post, “Be Honest With Me”)

D) If I drink alcohol at night I almost always wake up with insomnia in the middle of the night.

E) I usually drink to loosen up inhibitions. I’d rather have the ability to be confident without the crutch.

That said, I don’t have anything against anyone who drinks. People drink for all sorts of reasons and when I was single I probably drank every single night, for better or worse.

But this commercial struck me. I saw it as a pre-roll ad on a music video I was watching on YouTube. I normally don’t notice the ads there but the song I recognized (although it was written specifically for this commercial) because it was by Aloe Bacc who did the opening song for one of my favorite HBO shows, “Making it In America”. And it used the same background beat as that opening song so I felt compelled to look.

The first thing I saw was a guy who seemed rather dorky and ugly (he has an almost obscenely enormous nose) so I was wondering if this was a joke of some sort. Didn’t seem like the typical suave guy you see in a commercial like this. Although I quickly realized he had a sort of “ugly charisma” where looks don’t matter as much as all the other things going on around him. It was this that attracted me to the commercial.

It almost seemed as if the commercial was like a “Daily Practice” but for bartenders. Bartenders who were focused on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health and attempted to improve every day in those areas.

Physical – Clearly he seems healthy. In addition to being a bartender who also serves as bouncer, kicking out a rough patron to the cheers of the other bar patrons. He also has the balance and poise to carry drinks through the room (while precisely messing with the arrogant pool player).

Emotional – The bartender seems to instinctively be on the lookout to help people. If your constant thought throughout the day is “What life can I save next?” then over time you build this instinct and opportunities will happen throughout the day. You will be a non-stop superhero and the people around you will sense this about you.

Another way to cultivate this instinct is to be in a constant state of surrender. You don’t have to believe in a higher power, you just have to picture yourself as transparent to ANY power (higher or inner or whatever you want to call it) and simply ask (out loud if possible) “What do you want me to do next?” If you always ask, “what you do want me to do next?” and you ask it with sincerity and without trying to control the answer, the answer will always come. Again, it’s a practice but, built up, it has many rewards. When you give, you can’t help but receive.

The bartender gives repeatedly and again almost on instinct. He helps the junior bartender with the message to the girl. He helps the bride jilted at the altar, while politely putting off other customers. He makes her laugh. He helps the girl playing pool by messing with the arrogant guy she’s playing.

And in doing so, you can see the respect the crowd gives him. The looks the girls give him. The space he becomes entitled to while he does his job. I know – it’s a commercial. But it’s not imaginary if you cultivate these things inside of yourself.

Mental – He’s the head bartender for a reason. He knows hundreds of drink recipes. He can make the customer’s laugh. He deals with the stress of having hundreds of customers asking for a drink, some of them so drunk he has to evict them. And he plays the piano and hasn’t given up on it after childhood was over (like I did).

Spiritual – he needs his moment at the end of the day. His cave. Again, he has given throughout the evening, always looking to save a life, to help where he can so that it became an instinct. And he gets to enjoy the fruits. Not by going home with any girl (which he clearly could’ve, given the looks he was getting) but finding his own private time to relax in peace.

And it’s all connected. Being open to helping people is spiritual. Being able to show balance and poise is spiritual and physical. Handling all the drink orders shows abilities in both the mental and physical categories. This is why no one “body” is more important than the others. They all flow together and building one up to the detriment of the others will ultimately create blockages in life.

I love a good commercial. When done right, it’s a one minute story, filled with all the elements of drama, character, a story arc, and good music. Today I want to live like this bartender. I want to be balanced in my life. I want to mentally exert myself to the fullest. I want to open myself up to helping the universe in whatever lives I can save. And at the end of the day I want peace and quiet. And a vanilla milkshake.

[See, How to Live Forever]

[See also, Be Honest With Me]

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