Home Office shortlists three for £10m binge drinking task

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 05-Sep-07, 09:10

LONDON - The Home Office has shortlisted Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO, DDB London, and VCCP, for its £10m alcohol task, which will include tackling the problem of binge drinking.

The pitch is part of a wider government effort in which £10m has been set aside for this year and similar amounts of funding expected to be spent over subsequent years.

The agencies will be challenged to submit proposals for a series of campaigns designed to raise awareness of the harm associated with alcohol abuse and to promote a sensible drinking culture.

The last big campaign on problem drinking, co-ordinated by the Department of Health, was the £4m "know your limits" ad campaign created by United London and launched last October.

The hard-hitting campaign showed a young man plunging to the ground after scaling scaffolding dressed as a superhero.

The new ad campaigns will put into practice proposals contained in the government's alcohol strategy, "Safe. Sensible. Social", published in June last year by the Home Office and DoH.

The Home Office and DoH are jointly providing funding for the new work, which will target 18-to 24-year-old binge drinkers, those classed as 'harmful drinkers', and under age drinkers.

Part of the brief is to challenge public acceptance of drunkenness and raise public awareness of units of alcohol.