blog till you drop!
A cocktail of advertising, social media, and technology
Know your limits 2009 advertising campaign
Jun 15th
You may remember last year’s Home Office ‘You wouldn’t start a night like this’ campaign targeted at 18-24 year-olds about the effects of binge drinking. Advertising agency VCCP have produced an exciting new advert exclusively running online.
A presenter asks members of the public to smear vomit on themselves, pinch a stranger’s bum and fight. His demands escalate to glassing another person and throwing a bin through a window. The advert captures people’s expressions when confronted with what some people will do when they’re drunk.
Overall I think it’s a nice idea but I would like to see more posters/promotional materials (coasters /alcohol unit calculators / free breathalysers etc) in bars to reinforce this message…
A new challenger for Absolut Vodka and another anti-binge drinking ad
Jul 24th
Wodka is a product that has been out for a while now, and you just have to love their campaign!
With the influx of Poles in the UK, and the expansion of Europe, Polish Vodka Wodka has become a new item in UK’s shopping baskets. This has to be the best alcohol campaign I have seen in a while.
Still on the topic of alcohol consumption, I recently discovered another official anti-binge drinking campaign ad. You may remember that I was recently invited to the launch of the new Home Office’s anti- binge drinking campaign produced by ad agency VCCP. Although a little too long in my liking, the Scottish version is also effective at showing the effects of binge drinking…
VCCP’s binge drinking advertising premiere
Jun 18th
VCCP invited me yesterday, along with a bunch of other bloggers, to the premiere of the Home Office’s latest advertising campaign to tackle binge drinking amongst 18-24 year-olds. Sadly, none of us got drunk! 
The VCCP binge drinking ads form part of a wider government campaign aimed at educating consumers about alcohol. There are plenty of other good ads out there, such as the alcohol units campaign also by VCCP but also this print poster by TBWA.
The meet up took place in Covent Garden at the bottom of Long Acre (towards Holborn) where there is currently a Selfridges-type window display with mannequins mirroring the TV ads. Passers-by can download a viral ad via Bluetooth on their phone, and also watch the TV commercials being broadcast in the windows.
Unfortunately I never received the Bluetooth ad – I think the poster should be a little clearer and let people know that they will firstly receive a push message and will then have to enter the code to receive the ad. How about giving a free number people can text to receive the ad instead? Here’s the viral ad:
Binge drinking is indeed a very serious problem in the UK and advertising won’t solve the problem, but early education could mean prevention. Hard facts:
- A recent survey shows that Britain has the most drunk teenagers in the world
- Around 40% of A&E admissions are alcohol related
- There are 1.2 million incident of alcohol related violence a year
- Alcohol related crimes cost £7.3bn
VCCP have come up with a series of print, radio, TV, and a viral advert targeted at 18-24s with the strapline ‘you wouldn’t start a night like this so why end it this way.’
I really like the fact VCCP have created two different ads for both male and female drinkers as male and female behaviour under the influence of alcohol is very different. I really like the concept of showing people what they look like when they are drunk as it works as a reminder of how they might have behaved/what they would have looked like after a heavy night out.
The male version of the ad shows a guy getting reading to go on a night out, smearing food onto his shirt, peeing on his shoes, ripping his earring out and violently kicking his stereo.
The female version of the ad shows a girl ripping her tights and shirt off, throwing up, smearing make up all over her face, pouring wine over her jacket and breaking her stilettos.
Both ads convey a very strong message – binge drinking is disgusting and can result in disgraceful behaviour. In fact, the male and female ads almost made me feel sick! Am I being too squeamish?