THERE will be many readers of this newspaper today who will be suffering from filthy, rotten hangovers.
And they will not all be over 18 years of age.
Underage drinking in WA is a serious issue and our advertising agencies have much to answer for.
In my day, on New Year’s Eve, you drank beer and cheap flagon wine – maybe to the point of throwing up.
Harm done? Yes. But maybe not as much harm as is being done to the youth of today.
Thanks to the “creative geniuses” who work in advertising, our youth now quaff highly fortified alcoholic drinks such as vodka, white rum and bourbon like they were just another soft drink in the playground.
And that’s exactly how the advertising agencies are marketing it.
The other day while teaching my 17-year-old daughter to drive, she spied a billboard for a well-known white rum-based mixer drink.
She stated matter of factly: “Dad, no Year 12 girl would be caught dead drinking that stuff. IT’S FOR 14-year-olds!”
So hats off and a big round of applause to our advertising executives who know exactly who their market is and how to pitch the message.
Under-18 teenage girls just love all the colour, fizz and sexy laughter of those billboards and magazine ads.
Like tobacco company executives, I hope some of these advertising executives who handle alcohol accounts – especially those with teenage kids – don’t actually sleep that straight at night.
Social commentator Phillip Adams refers to these guys who disingenuously target our teenagers with their poison as “corporate paedophiles” – a hat that fits more snugly than Santa’s.