Aware.org launches responsible drinking campaign

Deputy minister of Department of Social Development, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu and Ingrid Louw, CEO of Aware.org. Image supplied.

“Our research shows us people tend to switch off when the finger pointing or the stick approach is used. The same response is elicited when the bad consequences of alcohol abuse are shown,” says Monalisa Zwambila, CEO of Riverbed, the agency responsible for the campaign.

A banal message

ECD Adrian Miller, responsible for the TVC, agrees. “The message promoting drinking responsibly has become a banal message. It has become wallpaper despite most campaigns ending in death and destruction.

#Newsmaker: Adrian Miller, ECD at Riverbed

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The agency examined responsible alcohol advertising and drink responsibly campaigns from around the world. “We looked at what has been done and tried to veer away from the well-trodden paths and do something original and interesting – an ad people want to watch more than once or twice, want to share and talk about,” Miller explains.

The result is an ad that is extraordinary in its delivery, making people look into themselves, and Miller believes this is a first for a responsible drinking campaign.

“It shows the progression many people go through when they go out for drinks; the guy in the bathroom looking at himself in the mirror, thinking, I have had enough, hitting on the girl you shouldn’t in a way that is not appropriate, getting into a fight and then taking it to the extreme when the guy is thrown out of the bar/club,” he says.

Think differently

“The TCV does a complete 360 journey, with the person going out and coming home to have a pleasant evening and thinks differently to connect differently to consumers,” adds Zwambila.

The campaign stems out the realisation that industry cannot continue to do the same thing and hope for a different result explains Ingrid Louw, CEO of Aware.org. “Despite the industry promoting responsible drinking for 20 plus years, the stats continue to climb. That’s the scary part.”

She says they realised that they need to be bold and approach this issue differently and be creative about it. To move forward we felt we need to engage with consumers and by having the right conversations, change people’s behaviour so they make informed choices that will reduce the harm associated with drinking responsibly.”

Free from the harms of alcohol

Responsible for the new strategy for Aware.org, Lou Boxall-Davies, LBD Consulting, head of strategy, explains that the campaign flows out of the strategy, which is to have a generation of South Africans free from the harms of alcohol.

“The vision is around changing the status quo and the essence of the brand is about being responsible for better, which is better lives without, for example, crime and HIV. Ironically enough if we succeed then we will have done ourselves out of a job.”

The deputy minister of Department of Social Development, Hendrietta Bogopane-Zulu delivered a sobering keynote at the launch on the harm of alcohol. In her no-holds-barred keynote, she warned the liquor industry as well as the creative advertising industry to rather be her friend than her enemy. “You don’t want to know the realities we face every day in the department.” She ended on a positive note congratulating the industry on its campaign.