Social Marketing and Drinking Cultures

Social Marketingand

Drinking Cultures

Will [email protected]

Know Your Limits (2007)

Units (2008)

Binge Drinking?

“There is no direct relationship between the amounts or patterns of consumption and types of harm caused or experienced.”

(Cabinet Office. 2004. Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy for England, p.12. London: Prime Minister's Strategy Unit.)

Binge Drinking?

“In the culture of drinking to get drunk, which often sets the tone for the night-time economy, the norms differ from usual behaviour – noisy behaviour may be expected and aggressive behaviour tolerated, with drunkenness used as an excuse. Where there is little social control, such behaviour is likely to increase.”

AHRSE, p.46.

Changing norms

DCMS consultation (2005) sought “a fundamental change in attitude” towards alcohol, “so that binge and underage drinking are no longer regarded as socially acceptable”.

Public Health White Paper (2010) saw as a key weapon in its armoury “changing social norms and default options for people”.

Carnivalesque Drinking

“You think, ‘Oh God’, and a few, maybe a few months later on you think ‘Oh that’s really funny’, you tell it to all your friends and they laugh and you laugh.”

…

“It was brilliant though!”

Will Haydock [email protected]

PhD Thesis:

“Gender, Class and ‘Binge’ Drinking”

Available from http://eprints.bournemouth.ac.uk/16236/