Alcohol. Think Again. educates WA community of the dangers of drinking during pregnancy in new campaign via 303 MullenLowe
Alcohol. Think Again has launched a new public education campaign via 303 MullenLowe, to inform the Western Australian community about the risk to babies from alcohol use during pregnancy.
The campaign’s key message of “any amount a mother drinks, the baby drinks” challenges the inaccurate belief that a mother’s placenta protects a developing baby from alcohol. If a woman drinks alcohol during pregnancy, the blood alcohol level of the baby is similar to that of the mother, with research showing that even small amounts of alcohol during pregnancy can be harmful.
Says Richard Berney, executive creative director at 303 MullenLowe: “The research we were given to work with was very powerful, and we channelled it as simply as we could. Any amount a mother drinks, the baby drinks is a striking fact and deserved a striking demonstration.
Says Tahnee McCausland, senior project officer, Public Education and Health Promotion: “While our recent research found most women believe alcohol should not be consumed during pregnancy, it also highlighted the need for continued education as 15% of WA women still reported drinking alcohol during their last pregnancy and 1 in 3 were unsure how much alcohol was okay to drink during pregnancy.”
The timing of the launch of the ‘One Drink’ campaign aligns with the National Health and Medical Research Council strengthening its advice relating to pregnancy in the Australian Guidelines to Reduce Health Risks from Drinking Alcohol. The Council now recommends that women who are pregnant and planning pregnancy should not drink alcohol.
Prenatal exposure to alcohol can damage the baby’s brain, resulting in severe and permanent physical, mental and behavioural disabilities, known as Fetal Alcohol Spectrum Disorder (FASD). There is concern that as many as 2% of all Australian babies may be born with some form of FASD.
The campaign’s media strategy is led by state-wide TV and supported by cinema, radio, out-of-home advertising, digital and social advertising and paid search.
More information is available at www.alcoholthinkagain.com.au, including where to go if you are concerned and for tips to support pregnant women to stay alcohol-free.
Client:
Cancer Council Western Australia
Program Manager: Julia Stafford
Policy and Research Coordinator: Danica Keric
Mental Health Commission
Manager, Public Education and Health Promotion: Hannah Samsa
Senior Project Officer, Public Education and Health Promotion: Tahnee McCausland
Agency: 303 MullenLowe Perth:
Executive Creative Director: Richard Berney
Senior Writer: Steve Straw
Art Director: Steve Lorimer
Head of Planning: John Linton
Business Lead: Krista Song
Producer: Jonathan Julius
Production Company: Siamese
Director: Anthony Webb
Producer: Francesca Hope
Lead VFX: Andrew Buckley
DOP: Dave Le May
Sound: Cue Sound
Audio Engineer: Daniel Johnston
Photography: Luke Carter-Wilton
Media Agency: Initiative Perth
Investment Partnerships Manager: Lauren De Rozario
Investment Partnerships Executive: Christine Foster
10 Comments
Powerful insight, powerful creative. Nice one.
Where does the air in the baby go when the wine is poured into the baby?
I see that all the Creatives who worked on this are male. It would be interesting to know if any form of human-centred-design was used. And/or whether any Mums-to-be think there is a place for shock tactics in 2021.
Cheers, SM.
Interesting observation. As a woman from the target demographic, I definitely find this confronting. There is a massive guilt factor being communicated too, and there is a place for serious health concerns- sometimes we need a wake-up. However I think the messaging could have been less paternalistic. Appreciate the facts and the intent of this health promotion.
Hi SM,
Thanks for your comments. There’s probably two key points to address:
1) How inclusive was the campaign development process? While the creative team was all-male, their work (along with that of the strategic team) was developed through an extensive and gender-inclusive engagement process. At the forefront of this process was Kantar’s formative research and concept testing, which involved speaking to almost 400 women and men across WA.
2) Is there a place for shock tactics in 2021? Speaking on behalf of the research participants – while many found this particular approach to be ‘confronting’ and ‘shocking’ initially, they believed it to be necessarily so. Compared to other options (which used ‘non-shock tactics’), this direction was preferred for the way it powerfully and simply delivered an important message they believed all needed to hear.
John
Nice job guys. Simple and effective.
Professor of Physics – out of the air vent behind the baby’s head.
This is a very strong execution, but it is an extension of the original and long running ‘glass body’ strategy and campaign from 2016/7 not an original strategy and concept.
Here’s a link a to the original work where you can see custom executions for each body area. Not a great strategic or creative leap to add ‘in utero’ and deliver this new version, which I love.
https://alcoholthinkagain.com.au/campaigns/alcohol-and-health-glassbody/
@Homage to the Original
Only glass body was much better and was created by female creatives. Not two, old boomers.
Crikey I thought we lived in a time when people judged the quality of the idea over the gender of the creator.