A new campaign was launched by the FAD foundation in Spain to raise awareness about alcohol misuse and help people start thinking about the growing place alcohol consumption may take in their lives.
The campain, designed by the Shackleton agency, consists of three 30 second TV spots, two radio spots and a poster designed for the press and outdoor advertisements.
Children and adolescents are the most vulnerable to alcohol consumption and its consequences. Peer pressure from friends, need for social acceptance, or difficulty making decisions in recreational areas are some of the many risk factors to which adolescents are exposed on a daily basis.
Alcohol among youth is no longer a marginal phenomenon. It is constantly increasing among teens and it is not uncommon to see 12 or 13 years old patients, landing at the emergency ward, victims of alcoholic coma. This worrying trend, experts say, is partly related to the practice of binge drinking, an expression describing the act of drinking large quantities of alcohol, as quickly as possible, with the sole aim of achieving drunkenness.
An estimated 23 million Europeans are addicted to alcohol, a psychoactive drug which causes about 195,000 deaths each year in the European Union (accidents, homicides, suicides and illnesses). Young people represent the population most affected, with an alcohol-related mortality by 25% in men and 10% in women.
(Alcohol in Europe, a Public Health Perspective – Report to the European Commission, Anderson P., Baumberg B.)