Media campaign using photographs and images to reduce teenage alcohol consumption

Teen Drinking

Media Campaign

A media campaign designed to reduce alcohol use among teens and young adults would be similar to the national media campaign associated with the anti-drug message. The campaign would specifically play off the fact that alcohol use is not only dangerous but is also fundamentally destructive to the individual and community. The campaign would be a combination campaign using radio, television, PSAs, but most importantly it will focus on the infectious media of social networking cites, such as MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, infectious internet cites like You Tube and cell phone communications. Media ads will reflect the pervasive nature of this modern communication style among teens and how the style itself can interrupt his or her life and possible success.

The first ad in a series will show and individual through the progression of an evening of partying. The individual will begin the night with her friends while digital video is being taken by one of the friends. The night will progress in time lapses to the individual being videotaped puking in the toilet and then passing out on the floor of the bathroom. The whole ad will be peppered with depictions of the individual(s) drinking alcohol in various ways, a drinking game, a shot contest, body shots…. And then the individual will be seen dancing with a boy in a very provocative manner. The ad will close with segments showing the videotape being uploaded to Youtube, while all the individuals involved laugh about the fun they had. The ad will close with the mother of one of the girls in the video sitting in an ob/gyn clinic next to the girl who is looking around at the different depictions of the stages of fetal growth and watching misbehaving children drive their adult married mother's crazy.

Proposed ads for television will include a series of ads where young people doing homework are being constantly interrupted by cell phone texting, emails and phone calls from an individual or individuals who are drunk. The individual will read and deal with all the interruptions and express their rejection of the individual interrupting them while they study for finals. The ad will then show the individual first continuing his or her attempt to study, and talking down the behavior while he or she is interrupted every few seconds by the partiers and finally with the individual sneaking out of the house to go join his or her friends. The next ad will pan to the individual sitting in a classroom the following morning, with an obvious hang over and quietly dealing with the extreme anxiety of not being able to answer the test questions.

Another television ad will show an individual who was drunk the previous night watching television with his/her younger siblings and parents, when their own Youtube video is exposed on the evening news, based around a news story about the dangers of teen drinking. The individual will be shown in the news clip, a video from the previous weekend posted by a friend, drinking, dancing like an idiot and being videotaped by a friend trying to drive everyone home. At the same moment that the news story ends there will be a knock on the front door, at the door will be the police who will ask for the individual who was featured in the Youtube video, reaching into the home with handcuffs, and then showing the individual looking back from a patrol car. later in an interrogation room the individual will be asked who provided the alcohol and he will respond, Alex's dad, who will then be shown being handcuffed by another set of officers in another location.

Another ad will play off another YouTube video where a friend posted the previous weekend's revelry and someone forwarded it to the school principle. The school principle will first be shown expressing to another colleague his choice for valedictorian, based on both grades and impeccable behavior. The ad will show brief positive clips of the individual showing the public nature of his or her behavior. The principle will then walk into his office, sit down, open an email, and link to a you tube video showing the individual who had previously been shown in a positive light, in a drunken stupor trying to recite his or her valedictorian speech and making fun of the principle for being a stiff shirt who is totally buffaloed by the student's public persona.

Another ad will contain a news expose about individuals who are rejected for jobs because he or she has been linked with a graphic Youtube video showing the individual doing lude things while drinking. The HR manager at the prestigious firm, attempting to hire an intern will be watching the video with a colleague and laughing after he saw the video on the news the night before. The intercom will announce that his 12:30 interview is in the lobby waiting. The executive will close the Youtube site, the colleague will exit the room as the main figure in the video walks into the room. The look of surprise and concern will be pasted across the face of the executive as he asks the individual to sit down and then it will time forward to the end of the ad when the Exec will be shaking the individual's hand as he or she leaves the interview. The exec will then walk back to his desk, after the door has closed, throw away the individual's resume and call for the next interview.

Radio and PSA ads will repeat the messages of the television ads, through segments that translate to the other venues.

Impetus and Evaluation of the Media Campaign

Teen alcohol use/abuse is one of the most significant health threats faced by those in the age group and yet through t rapid communications and technology of the day many teens take the problem as serious fun and freely express their rebellion online. One of the biggest reasons why teen drinking is such a problem is because alcohol is a widely available and legal drug and teens often feel like it is harmless because it is legal and adults drink all the time. Teens might think that alcohol is harmless simply because it is legal or it might be their drug of choice because it is nearly always available for just a few dollars, and there are often many people in their lives capable of getting it or buying it for them, sometimes even trusted adults. (Smart, Adlaf & Walsh, 1996) Parents and other adult friends are often convinced that if they provide the alcohol and supervise its use teens will be less likely to incur negative consequences from it and might learn how to deal with it, even though there is clear indication that teens simply drink more when it is provided in this way.

Youth who reported that a parent or a friend's parent had provided alcohol at a party within the past year reported drinking more on their last drinking occasion and were twice as likely to have consumed alcohol within the past 30 days and to have engaged in binge drinking (Foley et. al., 2004)

This finding also supports the fact that many teens think of drinking, even when they know it is associated with risk and possible negative outcomes as a right of passage, from adolescence to adulthood, something that nearly everyone does, unless they are not cool, because it is fun. While only a few, and usually because of negative experiences really know what drinking is all about and how it really makes you feel and act. While many teens also know that the consequences of drinking are often bad, and might even not be worth the risk they also never assume they will get caught. The media campaign I have designed to run for a full year will put a greater emphasis on the social, legal and emotional ramifications of how one takes a simple action and it turns into a worst case scenario for getting caught. Fear of personal or social shame or limitations on individual opportunities seem to be some of the most compelling reasons why teens might abstain from drinking. The media campaign above will support he ideology of drinking as pure fun, until the individual is caught in several of many scenarios, including peer rejection, test and school failure, legal results, parental or authority discovery, unwanted pregnancy and finally being rejected for a prestigious and important job.

Given that death by accident is the leading cause of death among teens, adding alcohol to the mix only makes things worse as decisions made while intoxicated are impaired as are coordination and physical abilities. The ads will not play up death as a possibility because it is simply not a real fear for teens despite the reality of the statistics. "Motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death for people from 2 to 34 years old." (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2008) This impairment creates significant issues for functioning even in adults but among teens there is a great deal of evidence that physical changes to the brain may be permanent. One of those alarming physical changes is that the younger a person is when they begin drinking, even at low levels the more likely they are to become alcoholics. This change even overrides a known genetic predisposition for alcoholism. (Butler, July 4, 2006) Time forward ads regarding adult failure could be developed at a later time but again such images and concerns do not seem to sway teens. Funding for such a campaign would likely come from national and local foundations that stress clean living, and possibly from litigation funds that have been secured for healthier youth programs.

Alcohol use may begin simply as an exciting experiment, or as a way for a teen to feel a part of his or her peer group, lowering the feeling of awkwardness that often comes with the territory. Yet teen drinking can become a social disaster, that brings on extreme grief and loss. Legal problems, social problems, death of friends or family and even teen pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases can be spread because your whole mind is not working when you are drinking (Plant & Plant, 1992). "-Sixty percent of college women diagnosed with a sexually transmitted disease were drunk at the time of infection. (Advocacy Institute, 1992)" (Sound Vision Foundation, 2009) This does not even consider the long-term effects like permanent alcoholism or even dependence on other, harder drugs that affect you more and have really high costs. (Ponton, 1997) "In a 2001 survey, 41% of frequent binge drinkers reported having unplanned sex and 21% reported having unsafe sex as a result of their drinking in the past year." (Cooper, March 2002)

Alcohol use may seem like a fun pastime, to add to the exciting time of being a teen, or a way to help you to talk to people you would normally be afraid to approach, but its reality is far more dangerous. It is completely clear, even from one experience with alcohol that even though it may seem fun, there is always point when drinking goes too far and people get hurt, physically and/or emotionally, either from their own behavior or from the bad impaired decisions of others they are with.

Image 1 Cartoon of progression of alcohol use in teens. First simply steeling a few drinks from parent's liquor cabinet, then drinking alone when angry or depressed and then binge drinking to excess while being cheered on by "friends." (Butler, July 4, 2006)

Getting caught can also be a frightening and costly experience as parents, police, school administrators and others use zero tolerance policies to try to stop teens from drinking. At the very least, you can lose the trust and faith of your family and teachers. You can lose your drivers license, even if you are not driving when you get caught, trying to buy alcohol, just for having it with you or being somewhere where alcohol is being consumed by others under 21, and of course if you get caught drinking. Many states institute an immediate 90 day to one year suspension of driving privileges for anyone under 21 caught drinking, holding or trying to buy alcohol and some even if you happen to be at a party where people under 21 are drinking. (National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, 2008) Or you or friends could die.

I can assure you that you probably do not look as cool as you think you do:

Image 2 Very Young Drinkers

(Boys with alcohol (bs269120), inmagine.com)

Image 3 Teens Drinking in Clubs

("Pocket Money Alcohol…," November, 11, 2007)

Image 4 Drunk Teen Passed out on Floor.

("AH shoes the best pillow…"myspace.com)

Image 5 Teen Girl Passed Out on sidewalk.

("Teen Alcohol Abuse…," 2005)

Images of teens in compromised or fundamentally, "embarrassing" situations seem to be more effective than the scare tactics often used by other popular campaigns. Alcohol, unlike food does not slowly digest in the body, so the speed that alcohol is consumed, such as in binge drinking makes a real difference in how fast someone gets drunk and how long they stay that way. Legally drunk, in most states is a Blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of 0.08 which is usually a single drink in one hour, 1, 12 oz beer or a much smaller amount of hard alcohol. (Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, June 2003) Some of the physical effects of alcohol at different BAC levels are found in the following figure.

The effects of alcohol on the brain are different for teens because even though you might think you are or you might look completely grown up, your brain is still developing. Because your brain is still developing and because your body is flooded with other new and natural chemicals called hormones, you are already predisposed to take risks that most adults would not take. This means that just being offered alcohol is dangerous because you have a limited ability to say no, even if you are smart enough to know better. (Spear, 2002) Below is a MRI image of the progressive growth of the brain from 5-year to age 20. The picture represents the maturing of the brain to a point where much of the brain has developed neurons, coating and connected pathways. Once can see from the picture that the middle and second to last sections, the teen years there is still a great deal of the brain not completely communicating with other parts of the brain. Many believe that this is the reason why teens are not completely capable of making well thought out decisions about what is safe and what is not safe. (Eide Neurolearning Blog, March 14, 2005) We might be just as "smart" as adults but our whole brain, connecting the thinking part of our brain to the acting part of our brian is not complete. Teens are not swayed by this sort of information as being in the period does not lend itself to seeing outside of it. Little of this information seems to trickle down to a teen when they consider drinking, as it does not speak to their greater desire to be accepted and to be given equal opportunity.

There is also a lot of evidence that alcohol effects teens more than it does adults, so one drink might be more than you can actually handle and many in a short time, binge drinking can cause you to be drunker than it would an adult your same size. (Hannigan, Spear, Spear, & Goodlett, 1999, p. 257) Without the experience to handle alcohol and with the special circumstances of brain and body development that are associated with simply growing up alcohol can be a very dangerous ingredient and make a big difference between a good night out with friends and a nightmare you live with for the rest of your life. Just getting in the car with a driver who has been drinking is a risk that many teens all over the country take, over and over.

Source: CDC YRBS, 2005 (Office on Women's Health, 2005)

Many teens probably choose to ride with someone who has been drinking simply because they would rather take the risk of doing this than of getting in trouble for getting home to late or having to call home for a ride. As you can see from the above graph girls are more likely to ride with people who have been drinking than boys and boys are more likely to drive after they have been drinking. According to Mothers Against Drunk Driving eight young people a day die in alcohol related car accidents. (Sound Vision Foundation, 2009) "On average someone is killed by a drunk driver every 40 minutes." (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, 2008) Teens rarely think about the consequences of riding with a drunk driver, mostly because again they feel as if they are unlikely to be the one who gets caught, doing anything but breaking curfew.

The problem of teen drinking is also a lot bigger than many probably think as reports from teens themselves are significant, "In 2007, 18.6 million persons aged 12 or older were classified with dependence on or abuse of alcohol. This represents 7.5% of the population. The number and the percentage have remained similar since 2002." (Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, 2008)