Anti-binge drinking ads add to binge drinking

A US study has shown that anti-binge drinking ads may actually provoke exactly the kind of liver-bashing behaviour they're trying to prevent. Saskatchewan Ministry of Health anti-binge drinking poster Researchers at the Northwestern University's Kellogg School of Management showed 1,200 undergraduates anti-booze ads based on …

[Peter Galbavy]

positives of stopping...

I remember when I was a kid and visiting Oz in 1981 for the first time since leaving a few years before (and not been back since) there was a ad on the buses which showed an ashtray full of butts and ash with the words "Kiss a non-smoker. Taste the difference."

The positive message has stayed with me and I have never felt the resentment that the article says we feel from being lectured to. Just think about the "You wouldn't steal a car..." DVD piracy crap. What effect has that had on many of us ?

[Anonymous Coward]

@first poster

"Just think about the "You wouldn't steal a car..." DVD piracy crap. What effect has that had on many of us ?"

After years of pirating, I saw that ad and thought, why the hell not, I steal music and films. Now I steal cars too. What... it wasn't an New Labour marketing campaign for alternative career paths? ...oh...

[Iggle Piggle]

agree

That DVD piracy thing is annoying. Indeed I wouldn't and haven't stolen a DVD either but I'm still having to sit though this anti piracy announcement rather than watching the movie I paid for.

[frank ly]

Malign Influence

I once stole a policeman's helmet, then did a dump in it. I blame the malign influence of television.

[Marvin the Martian]

Policemen's helmets

I think you'd more rightly blame books in general and PG Woodehouse in particular --- Bertie Wooster stealing these beauties is a recurring theme.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Iggle Piggle

Watching pirated DVDs has the advantage that someone else has already ripped those pesky ads off first and it saves me from having to do. If it was for that stuff I'd buy the originals instead.

[MrHorizontal]

LOL F A I L

I think this has to go to the top of the FAIL charts... lol

That said, anyone who has seen an proper alcoholic will know that alcohol is actually the most dangerous narcotic on the planet - far more dangerous than any Class A even. Of course governments and the booze industry don't want you to realize that, as they're snouts are far too deeply entrenched in the trough... or should I say glass.

[PhonicUK]

And oddly enough...

Encouraging abstinence only results in higher teen pregnancy rates! Whod'a thunk it?

Paris, because she knows all about teen drinking.

[TeeCee]

I'm not surprised.

The caption on that ad says that "Binge drinking can lead to unplanned, unprotected sex".

Er, that's supposed to be a downside????

TFIF I say.

[Anonymous John]

Re I'm not surprised.

It's a downside in the morning when you are no longer wearing beer goggles.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: Re I'm not surprised

Simples - don't stop drinking.....

[Anonymous Coward]

duh

Guilt tripping people has never worked... it just makes them resent the fact that they are being guilt tripped. Consequently even the most important messages are ignored because they were delivered in a way people consider distasteful.

When governments stop treating the population as if they're all children or mental defectives only capable of responding to brazen fear mongering, and start offering genuine relevant medical information delivered in an appropriate way, then people will stop bingeing. And when I say appropriate, the warnings on cigarette packets are perfect examples of what's inappropriate.

It's like going to a funeral and saying "Your father was a smoker and now he's dead haha" and blowing an air horn every 5 minutes to make sure the grieving family can't ignore you. It's just tasteless.

Besides, what kind of person makes life changing decisions based on a poster they saw?

[Jimbo 6]

Uhhh...

"stop treating the population as if they're all children or mental defectives only capable of responding to brazen fear mongering"

That'll be "stop treating the population as if they're all Daily Express readers", then.

[Neur0mancer]

Wow

I can never get it up when I go binge drinking...........so........... kudos.

[Anonymous Coward]

A sitcom?

Honestly, as one of the 'youf' a sitcom would be received by my friends and I with a large measure of vermouth and a measure of vodka and gin... Um I MEANT to say cynicism followed by a fair amount of eye-rolling.

Whenever something with a significant, and important message, it should never be tried to be put across in a light hearted way, or in a way in which those who are sending the message are trying to be 'down with the kids, yo'.

My advice with the budget? Take them to a morgue and show them someone who died, at 30, of liver failure. That'll make them sit up.

Or they could just go to the pub.

[RichyS]

Weird

Oddly enough, after reading that article, I feel the need for a bowl of corn flakes.

Can't understand why.

Oh, and a pint.

[Captain Hogwash]

@duh

You entirely missed the point of the new nasty pictorial warnings on cigarette packets. This was the government's plan to kick-start a failing economy by reviving a previously moribund sector. Nobody wants to look at those pictures so they start buying cigarette cases and discarding the packets. This has the effect of perking up sales on the high street of both cigarettes and cigarette cases. It also has the serendipitous side-effect of creating the correct 1930s aesthetic to usher in the new golden age of totalitarianism.

[Anonymous Coward]

expensive solution

Do it the cheap way -- make sure you buy the next packet before you run out, if the new packet is yuckier than the old one then transfer your fags to the old packet. For extra satisfaction leave the empty packet, revolting picture up, in a place where it will make the day of non-smokers a little bit more unpleasant. What goes around comes around boys.

[Reading Your E-mail]

I'll drink to that!!!

Nothing further to say your honour.

[Sam]

Is it me or...

Did that poster not catch Harry Enfield looking his best?

[Anonymous Coward]

Drinking games

We do an extra shot every time we see a binge drinking advert...

[chr0m4t1c]

Maybe if Nanny didn't come across as such an idiot...

The generally accepted levels for a "binge" in the UK are the ones used by the ONS to define heavy drinking,i.e. 8 units or more in a day for men and 6 units or more in a day for women.

Or to put it another way, if you take the Mrs out for a meal and split a bottle of wine between you then another drink will mean she is on a binge.

Or pop down to the pub with your mates, have a couple of pints and a double whatever to finish means you've been on a binge.

Really, if they want us to take them seriously then they need to be more serious with the definitions.

Speed doesn't kill, if it did no-one would be able to fly off on holiday.

[PsychicMonkey]

sorry , what was that?

i missed thearticle, due to being in the pub.

[Dr. Mouse]

No Shit Sherlock!

"If you're talking to a student about cheating on an exam, and one of these ads comes up, you can bet they are headed straight to the bar."

Select a random student, at a random time, and I would place money on them being either in a bar, heading to it, or heading from it. They're students!

There's a time and a place for everything, and that place is college...

[Graham Marsden]

Another statement from the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious

Most people don't like emotionally manipulative adverts and "guilt trip" messages and thus such things fail to achieve their aims.

Who would have believed it...

[Neil 6]

Unplanned sex you say?

I'll drink to that.

[Anonymous Coward]

@A sitcom?

maybe not "friends", but Holly Oaks and Brookside managed to address some issues in their time, and i remember Grange Hill keeping me well away from Smack forever (despite that terrible song).

[Anonymous Coward]

The one where we steal a sitcom plot,...

IIRC, one of the plots in Friends involved Rachel not remembering who got her pregnant and no clues except for his "sweater" being left behind. I think this "sitcom as a warning" about alcohol idea has already been done - get drunk and you could end up shagging someone as vapid as Jennifer Aniston.

PS. It was Ross.

[Anonymous Coward]

How about mind your own f##cking business

and stop telling me how to live my frigging life, government and health 'charities', FFS

[lukewarmdog]

Choice?

I choose to get wasted and have sex please. Oh God please. Wont somebody think of my chances of practicing to make children.

[Joe K]

UK adverts

Have you seen the latest "drinking causes damage you can't see" campaign by the nanny state? The horrific bus shelter and TV ads that make out like 2 pints is going to give you cancer, or a sudden heart attack/stroke?

I sure as hell need a pint to calm down after seeing those fucking things.

[Anonymous Coward]

Booze

The time i see this. Is on the way to the pub.

[David Hicklin]

Re: UK adverts

Yes I have seen them and they just remind me that I have some cans in the fridge nicely chilled that I had not thought about recently, so I go and drink one !

[BigRedS]

Unfortunate tagline.

"Binge drinking can lead to .... sex"

[burning plastic]

Kevin at 17?

That really does look like the poster for the next Kevin and Perry film...

[Anonymous Coward]

Talking of fags...

work mate of mine visited one of the few places in this country where cigarrettes are produced.

This "factory" pays £3,000,000 A DAY in tax. Yes, thats right 3 milion quid a day.

The workers are happy, no one ever leaves, they have proper smoking areas with settees, coffee on tap etc etc.Spotless building, proper health care etc etc.

And the government wants to make smoking a no-no. They might say it to appease the ney-sayers but its in their own interest to keep fags and boozer on sale.

Twunts, the lot of em. If people want to drink, then charge em when they end up in hospital for some stupid booze induced injury. And make it a lot. Coppers, nick em, bang em up for the night and charge em for the honour and taking up a cell cos they cant hold their ale.

Or do a Kenny...Round em up, put 'em in a field....You know the rest.

[Hollerith 1]

Binge drinkign - curse of youth

Young folks always over-do. They haven't had enough negative consequences, hang-overs etc. to make them change their ways. Usually, in the late 20s, something makes them look at themselves and think 'no, won't do that again'. And they don't.

The ones who keep up this behavour are arrested development cases or have issues, issues, issues. What can be kinda cute in a febrile way by 22 year old is just sad by a 42 year old.

[Anonymous Coward]

damn right!

the second I saw one of those latest range of 'alcohol reduction' posters....with a picture

of a nice chilled, crisp lager with the glass covered in condensate.... my. what a thirst i got. had to down a pint as soon as I could! ;-)

[Poor Coco]

The real effect of that ad....

...ish to show the hideoush grammatical mishtakesh you make when you shloshed, like usheing "who" inshtead of "whom". Fucking Shashatchewan bashtardsh!