drinking culture

The latest DrinkWise Ad is a Beer Commercial, Not Public Health Message

There is an art to creating a faux public health ad that, far from damaging your bottom line, actually enhances it. That’s a win for the alcohol industry, but a big loss for the rest of us. So what is wrong with the DrinkWise advertisement? - Michael Thorn is CEO of the Foundation for Alcohol Research and [...]

The truth about Drinkwise

DrinkWise is a Social Aspects Public Relations Organisation (SAPRO) established by the alcohol industry in 2005. DrinkWise is wholly funded by the alcohol industry and governed by a board whose 13 members include 6 alcohol industry representatives. DrinkWise describes itself as an ‘independent, not-for-profit organisation’ whose ‘primary focus is to help bring about a healthier [...]

Parents May Be Putting Their Children On A Path To Drinking

• Parents are the largest supplier of alcohol to under 18s • Teens three times more likely to drink full serves if parents supply Teenagers whose parents supply alcohol in early adolescence are three times as likely to be drinking full serves of alcohol at age 16 as children in families that do not supply [...]

Is booze-free becoming the new black?

Sales of alcohol-free alternatives to beer, wine and liquor are on the increase. In fact, research published recently showed that almost half of British adults believe alcohol-free beer is more socially acceptable than it was five years ago. Numerous alcohol-free bars in the UK and US are starting to pop up and provide alternatives for [...]

Teenage Drinking On The Decline

Our boozy Australian culture may soon be extinct if the results of a recent survey are anything to go by. Published in the scientific journal Addiction, the survey led by Dr Michael Livingston of Australia’s National Drug and Alcohol Research Centre compiled the responses of more than 2500 Australians aged 14 to 17. It found [...]

Help With Teen Alcohol Use

Last week an article on the Generation Next Blog discussed how schools are struggling to deal with the perceived rise in teenage “binge drinking.”   Having been a high school teacher my whole professional life I have seen first hand how schools are expected to take an increasing responsibility in teaching students about these kids [...]

Schools Call For Help On Alcohol

Principals reported that student use of alcohol outside of school time was the third most important student issue they had to deal with – only depression and cyber bullying were more significant. This demonstrates that alcohol remains a big problem for school students even when their overall rates of drinking are in decline. Alcohol problems [...]

Parents furious over Cricket Australia sponsorship decision

GrogWatch is outraged that Cricket Australia has censored the messages of the WACA sponsor Healthway to ensure alcohol sponsors aren’t upset, as reported by The Sydney Morning Herald. Not only is the alcohol industry failing to self-regulate its own ads, but its now managing to squash health messages. This is not going unnoticed and concerned parents are hitting [...]

High Sobriety

My tilt at sobriety came after 20 years of partying that had left me physically and emotionally spent. It was ironic, given my job. Sunday Age readers may remember an article I wrote at the time, in which I outed myself as the binge-drinking health reporter. During the week I wrote about Australia's booze-soaked culture. [...]

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