Ad campaign aims to shift parents' drinking habits

The launch is in line with the upcoming World Health Organisation global strategy to reduce the harmful effects of alcohol use and ARA has a R9 million launch budget, aimed at educating parents on the impact of their drinking behaviour on their children. The campaign creates a direct link to this message about parents needing to behave responsibly for the benefit of their children.

In South Africa, the harmful effects of alcohol include underage drinking, drinking and driving and foetal alcohol disorder. For the ARA and its members, the development of this WHO global strategy is not going to result in a new direction for the local market, but rather a continuation and extension of what the industry has worked at for more than 20 years.

Subtle storyline

This campaign is said to have broken the mould of responsible alcohol consumption advertising, which usually relies on shock value by focusing instead on a more subtle storyline and execution. The approach was to shoot each commercial as a 60-second “short film” in order to convey the emotion and potency behind the message.

Arrested for being over the limit.

According to Anton Visser of Velocity, who directed the ads on behalf of Lowe Bull, “In this campaign you're trying to show people that their kids are affected by even the smallest transgressions and that their kids will most likely learn these same bad habits. To me, the stroke of genius is to make the scenarios relatively innocuous and “harmless” and to relate them to familiar situations that most parents find themselves in. If these scripts contained moments of bigger drama, most people would say, “That's not me.” But picking your kids up at a party or going to your kid's sports day, these are situations that most parents can't help but identify with”.

Parents - influence or under the influence

“Our research has indicated that whilst teenagers don't like to admit it, they really do care what their parents think and are strongly influenced by their parents' behaviour. As a result of the outcome of this research, many of our recent initiatives have focused on teenagers and parents, and this was the thought process involved with this particular ad campaign,” said Adrian Botha, spokesperson for the ARA.

“The message to parents is, if you drink, do so responsibly and set an example. Be a role model for your children. Previously many campaigns focused on the behaviour of the teenager, but this time round the attention is on the parent and how their behaviour influences their children.”

The three scenarios depicted in this campaign are:

• Dad having had more than his fair share to drink and abusing the referee and coach at his young son's school rugby match
  
• Mom being arrested at a roadblock for being over the limit when collecting her daughter and friends from a party
  
• Father trying to give a meaningful speech at his daughter's 21st birthday party but failing dismally

Kids make the point

The situations are made that more dramatic by using non-actors for the children and young adults whose performances convey their pain and embarrassment in small but effective ways such as detailed facial expressions.

Abusing the coach.

“It was always going to be a very sensitive treatment, there being no car crashes, violence or physical abuse, which often accompanies responsible drinking communication. Here the damage done is in the minds of children,” says Kirk Gainsford, executive creative director of Lowe Cape Town.

“Anton came to us with a vision on how he saw our stories unfolding and I am delighted by how the work has come out. So often, we see ads that we can dismiss off the bat, because in real life, very few people get that hammered. But these stories are so real; the performances are sensitive and honest and will cause everyone to question their behaviour. In many ways the idea lives in the execution, and I think Anton has done a remarkable job.”