Government launches £6m health campaign aimed at over-35 drinkers

by Staff Marketing 19-May-08, 09:09

LONDON - The Department of Health has launched today its 'Units' campaign, which aims to tell drinkers how many units are in their drinks.

‘Know Your Limits' is the government's biggest alcohol awareness campaign to date, and includes TV, radio, billboards and press adverts. The educational campaign depicts the number of units in individual drinks. The Units campaign has an overall budget of £6m for 2008/09. It will be followed by a £4m binge-drinking campaign from the Home Office next month.

The campaign is the result of research that many people are unaware of the number of units of alcohol in their drinks. According to a new YouGov poll,

82% of English drinkers claim to know what a unit of alcohol is, yet 77% don't know how many units are in a typical large glass of wine.

More than half of those questioned thought a large glass of wine (ABV 12%) would contain two units, when it actually contains three. More than a third (35%) did not know that an average pint of beer (ABV 4%) contains two units.

Public Health Minister, Dawn Primarolo, said: `Glass sizes have grown larger and the strength of many wines and beers has increased, so it's no wonder some of us have lost track of our alcohol consumption.

‘Excessive alcohol consumption is proven to play a significant role in the development of numerous diseases, including several cancers, heart disease and stroke. That's why this campaign is so important to the public's health'

To help people add up the units in their drinks, the Government has launched a new online calculator://www.nhs.uk/units.