Daily BrewAlberta launches cheeky 'Thanks Alcohol!' anti-drinking campaign
Have you been punched in the face after having a few too many drinks at the bar? Thanks alcohol!
That message and others are part of Alberta’s new, cheeky anti-drinking campaign, which attempts to use humour to point out that bad booze management can lead you to some pretty rough places.
The Alberta Gaming and Liquor Commission launched the new awareness campaign on Friday, reminding us about something most of us know from experience: alcohol can help turn you into a pretty crummy person.
The commission has released a set of posters of young adults in uncomfortable situations - such as recovering after a fight and laying awkwardly in bed with a stranger - capped with the slogan, "Thanks Alcohol!"
Every Canadian of legal drinking age has known someone, or is someone, who has exhibited horrible behaviour after a few drinks. There’s the pacifist guy who suddenly thinks it’s a good idea to fight strangers, or the entirely law-abiding gal who thinks vodka and pulling fire alarms is a match made in heaven.
Alberta’s “Thanks Alcohol!” campaign posters and website cheekily delve into that phenomenon.
Among their fictional characters are:
The Waterworks: The person who drinks too much and gets overly emotional about problems in their life, like that ex who won’t call back.
The Big Spender: The drunken person who maxes out their credit card buying drinks for strangers
The Easy Lover: “A few drinks later, you’re making out so hard that you don’t realize the cab is headed for the suburbs.”
The Party Puker: This one sort of speaks for itself. And when it’s done speaking, someone get it a breath mint.
The ALGC says the campaign is a clever way to warn young adults that it “can’t always be alcohol’s fault.” The site also gives a few tips on how to avoid getting drunk, including eating before you drink and pacing yourself when you are.
Taking a humourous stance when it comes to anti-drinking PSAs has been found to be the most effective way to handle spreading the message.
Previous studies have found that shame-based campaigns often have the opposite effect, spurring defensiveness and indignation.
A consumer psychology expert at Northwestern’s Kellogg School of Management previously studied an Ontario’s 2003 anti-drinking campaign, which showed a young woman with her head in a toilet bowl. The advertisement read, “Don’t let drinking flush your prom night down the drain.”
Undergraduate students who participated in the study were found to be more open to binge drinking after viewing the ad, due to something the study referred to as the “defensive processing” of information.
Ontario’s liquor commission abandoned that campaign long ago. A more recent anti-drinking campaign, called “Deflate the Elephant,” focuses on fostering support for those who drink to excess.
Perhaps the humourous, “we’ve all been there” attitude of the new Alberta campaign will avoid the problem with “defensive processing.” Which would go a long way to making this campaign an effective one.
