Home Office launches £4 million Binge Drinking campaign

The Home Office has launched a 'new, hard-hitting national advertising campaign to drive home the serious consequences of binge drinking to 18 to 24 year olds'. The campaign was launched this week by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith and will include television, print and online adverts.

In a Home Office press release for the campaign it was announced the centre piece would be 'two new television adverts that graphically highlight the consequences of binge drinking by reversing the sequence of a night out gone wrong. The adverts show a man and woman getting ready at home for a night out. They end with the man leaving home bloody and damaged and the woman closing her front door with smeared make-up and vomit in her hair.' One of the adverts can be seen in a Guardian article here.

The latest communications strategy comes shortly after the launch of  the Department of Health's £10 million 'Know Your Limits' campaign, aimed at raising awareness over units and supported by the units website. However we recently reported scepticism over such campaigns following a series of media reports and health professionals questioning their effectiveness.

A wide range of media campaigns are now being streamed, including Diageo's 'The choice is yours' campaign which is supported by a number of television adverts; to see one click here. The Department for Transport also recently launched a new Think! Summer drink driving campaign  focusing on the personal and legal consequences of drink driving. Add these to the range of local and regional campaigns and it seems the amount of alcohol messages has snowballed over the last year. However are these campaigns an effective use of resources? Let us know your thoughts below!

Comments

[Janice Batty]

These adverts are hard hitting, but do we really need to see the one about "the girl throwing up" when we are eating our dinners?

I think someone should rethink the timings of this advert - Personally this advert makes me heave when i see it, and it's not nice when i'm trying to eat my meal!

[Andrew Brown]

You can see all the Know Your Limits adverts on their YouTube channel (http://uk.youtube.com/user/knowyourlimits2).

The question in my mind as a result of this latest set of advertising is how it fits with the findings of the research detailed here (http://www.slideshare.net/drugeducationforum/as-long-as-i-know-how-im-getting-home/), which points out the importance of groups in the way that young people approach alcohol.