The Challenge

Lancashire’s Drug and Alcohol Action Team needed to find a way to warn young people of the dangers of over-indulgence but in such a way that young people would actually take notice.

The Solution

We created a series of 48 and 6-sheet posters featuring young people on a night out in the North West inadvertently ordering what would be the dire consequences of an alcoholic excess: from a breathalyser and a 12-month ban to unprotected sex and genital warts. To reinforce the message, our 6-sheets in urinals and ladies' loos featured lip-smacking glasses of regurgitated lager, carrot and stomach lining accompanied by the line: 'What will you be ordering this weekend?'

The campaign was designed to coincide with a government initiative to persuade young people to take water or soft drinks between their alcoholic drinks.

The Results

Research indicated that the only way to get through to problem drinkers was to bring them up short with a shocking, thought provoking image. One viewer commented that they hadn't touched a drop of alcohol since they saw the pint of vomit advert.