We've been doing a lot of work on booze in the agency over the last few months. Again, I can claim no credit for it whatsoever, but I think its good work and very different. Its bang on strategy for the youth target (18-24 years) audience and seems to be going down really well. Its a creative approach that tries not to scaremonger or preach, but rather engage young people and treat them like adults.
The thought at the heart of the campaign was - "you wouldn't start the night like this, so why end it like this?"
Its sparking some really informed and strong discussions online...
We started with a short film that has now gone viral (in first week over 400,000 views)
Then the female TV execution was aired:
And this is male TV execution.
In addition to these three executions we did a PR and Social Media launch with an installation in Covent Garden, Blogger Engagement, some very cool online ad units and print and outdoor.
This is fantastic stuff - very visceral, which makes it seem even more real...and a brilliant end line too. Not sure whether it makes so much sense in the fashion show context, but is amazingly hard hitting in the girl & boy spots.
Posted by: Richard Band | Friday, 27 June 2008 at 06:41 AM
Absolutely incredible. It is the best piece of non-commercial, public service comms I've seen in a while.
Ace.
Posted by: Asi | Friday, 27 June 2008 at 09:02 AM
I love the viral! I think the use of the fashion show was an extremely clever way to get people to pay attention. (I've seen the TV executions too, which are good, but for some reason I didn't make the connection...)
Great work
Posted by: Tiffany | Friday, 27 June 2008 at 10:53 AM
Showed the boy's night out version to my (white middle class) teenager who thinks he's a gangsta (and talks like dis wiv de homies, bled). He's now repelled by the uncoolness of being drunk. Job done, I'd say.
Posted by: Victor Houghton | Friday, 27 June 2008 at 12:56 PM
Impressive work. I guess it's just such a challenge to take the "cool" factor out of getting wasted for young people. Students still boast about how many pints they consume, young celebs still fall wide-eyed out of trendy bars to be snapped by paparazzi, footballers and rugby players go on big night out binges after matches (sometimes before!). Maybe it's time to get a celeb to front an anti-binge drinking campaign - though they then make themselves a hostage to fortune.
Posted by: branwell | Friday, 27 June 2008 at 12:58 PM
Its such a hard space to try and get a message across with preaching or using scare-tactics.
Crispin Porter did a great job with their Truth campaign. Exactly the right balance.
http://www.eggstrategy.com/blog/?p=367
Posted by: Amelia | Friday, 27 June 2008 at 01:51 PM
Great ads. So glad to see something that shows the negative side to the binge drinking issue.
My brother, Griffen Lollis, who had just turned 20, was killed in a binge drinking incident in May 2007.
Griffen went to a party, binge drank until he passed out for hours. His "friends" took a permanent marker and drew obscenities and sexual innuendos all over his legs, torso, arms and face. He was angry when he woke up, because on his chest was TEA BAG ME, which is considered, a sexual assault by another male.
He was kicked out of the party and driven by a friend, because he was too drunk to drive, and left in a roadway with keys.
He wound up dead beside the passenger door, less than a minute from home, of injuries from a wreck. His BAC was .267. Our kids are going way too far.
I founded an organization called Griffen's Gift, which has a website. I used photos of Griffen at the morgue on it and have gotten a great response from youth and adults who say seeing Griffen on that table, hits home for them.
To see his story go to www.griffensgift.com
Thank you for posting the videos, I will be sharing them with everyone I know.
Kimberly Lollis Parrish
Posted by: Kimberly Lollis Parrish | Saturday, 28 June 2008 at 10:01 PM
They're really great!
Think they also need to be accompanied by steps HOW to stop binge drinking, how to drink responsibly.
Posted by: Sarah Waite | Monday, 30 June 2008 at 09:12 AM
I agree that these ads finally seem to get the point. Young people, or for that matter everyone knows the risks and the statistics, but employ a, 'it will never happen to me’ philosophy. To finally give the problem a relevance to the persons life is where the message may finally start to get through.
Posted by: Karl Turley | Monday, 30 June 2008 at 01:57 PM
In response to Sarah Waite's post, we have actually built a landing page with positive drinking strategies on, check it out! http://wouldyou.direct.gov.uk/Flash.php
Posted by: michelle | Monday, 30 June 2008 at 05:25 PM
These are great ads. It is realistic and everyone (at any age) can recognize him or herself in it...Thinking then "Wow how stupid I was to drink that much".
Posted by: Chloe | Wednesday, 02 July 2008 at 12:40 PM