Provocative ‘what’s your poison?’ alcohol education campaign from 303 MullenLowe
The Western Australia Mental Health Commission and Cancer Council WA has tapped 303 MullenLowe for a new campaign for its ‘Alcohol. Think Again’ public education initiative.
The ‘What’s Your Poison?’ campaign aims to raise awareness of alcohol’s health risks regardless of the frequency or in what circumstances it is consumed.
303 MullenLowe’s new campaign for the Alcohol. Think Again initiative
303 MullenLowe senior business director Holly Creasey said the campaign was the first time Alcohol. Think Again made a direct correlation between alcohol and poison in an effort to drive home the message to the target audience of people aged over 25.
“Despite ongoing public health messaging about alcohol’s harms, many people still dismiss the personal risks associated with their alcohol use,” Creasey said.
“To help counter this, we needed a campaign that increases awareness about how alcohol causes harm to health. With a tagline that urges people to ‘reduce your drinking to reduce the damage’, we hope this campaign will make it easier for everyone to understand the harm alcohol can cause.”
303 MullenLowe copywriter Zosia Kilpatrick said the creative took the common term ‘what’s your poison’ as a central focus because it was such a familiar term known and used across different age groups.
“What many people don’t understand is why we use that phrase, and how it came to mean ‘what drink will you have?’. The fact is, it might be used because alcohol actually is a poison,” Kilpatrick said.
“Using this common phrase throughout the creative is a simple and effective way to explore the science behind what actually happens inside the body when you drink alcohol.”
The campaign is the agency’s latest with Alcohol. Think Again, with the ‘We all need to say no’ campaign launched in July 2022 and the ‘One Drink’ campaign launched in 2021.
Acting WA mental health commissioner Lindsay Hale said: “Alcohol contributes to significant harms in our community. While we have seen success over recent years in raising awareness of the health risks of alcohol, almost half of West Australian adults are not aware alcohol causes cancer.”
“The new campaign shows that when a person drinks alcohol, the body converts alcohol to acetaldehyde, a toxic chemical and known carcinogen. This causes damage to cells, which can lead to cancer. Continuing to raise awareness about the health risks of alcohol remains an important step to reduce preventable death and disease in the Western Australian community.”
Credits:
Executive Creative Director – Richard Berney
Art Director – Stephen Hansen
Copywriter – Zosia Kilpatrick
Head of Design – Alby Furfaro
Finished Artist – Suzanne Whoston
Head of Planning – John Linton
Senior Business Director – Holly Creasey
Business Executive – Devon Jackson
Head of Production – Johnathan Julius
Production Company: Beautiful Pictures
Director & Editor – Corrie Jones
Producer – Kate Downie
DoP – Patrick O’ Sullivan
Photographer – Duncan Wright
Digi Op / Photographer Assistant – Michael Tartaglia
Online & VFX – Last Pixel
Audio Post Production – Cue Sound
Sound Designer & Audio Engineer – Nick Gallagher
Casting – Megan Carpenter @ Toesox
Media – Initiative
Ben McAuliffe and Matt Hollins
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topics
303 Mullenlowe
Alcohol Think Again
Cancer Council WA
Holly Creasey
Western Australian Mental Health Commission
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