A new public health health campaign is being launched, with a £100 million backing from the Government, to try and encourage young people to drink less alcohol and more water on nights out. But will it be money well spent?
On a day where it was announced British girls are the worst drunks, it’s fitting that there was also a new announcement about the Governments latest plans to try and tackle the binge drinking culture in the UK. The largest media campaign against alcohol abuse will be launched under the slogan ‘Why let good times go bad?’.
The campaign is going to be targetting pretty much every angle, ranging from beer mats printed with the slogan, stickers in off licences, to television adverts warning about ending your night badly. Britain has long had a reputation as one of the biggest drinkers in Europe, and also as a country with the worst reputation for getting drunk abroad and causing trouble. The Government is desperately trying to find ways to get rid of the stereotype, as not only is it bad for the countries image, but a huge amount of taxpayers money is spent on policing town centres to try and stop fights during pub and club closing time.
A huge amount of time is also spent treating people who have managed to injure themselves whilst having a night out on the town, either through fights, falls or drink driving accidents. One of the aims that we found interesting here at The Water Cooler Company is to try and increase the amount of water that people drink on nights out. In pubs they are going to be putting up posters with a picture of a pint glass full of water, with the tagline “Free pints all night. Ask your bar staff for a drink of water”. Whether this will lead to ‘merry’ people only reading the first sentence and getting very excited about free beer all night is yet to be seen… Nevertheless if it does encourage people to take on more water on a night out it can only be a good thing.
One of the campaigns that we can’t see working too well is the attempt at relating to young people out drinking by using supposed ‘lads humour’. One of the planned posters is going to have an image of beer goggles, and have the caption “Afraid you’ll pull a moose? Stay focused by pacing your drinks”. Funny? Not really. Patronizing? Just a tad.
There’s even some speculation that this could lead venues and pubs to be installed with a water cooler or two to show the government they are making an effort to give their customers free water.
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