Alcohol is classed as a sedative hypnotic drug which acts to depress the central nervous system at high doses and act as a stimulant at lower doses. Drinking too much alcohol at one session can lead to drowsiness, shallow and slow breathing which can lead to a coma or even death.
Long term health risks involved in excessive alcohol drinking are high blood pressure, heart diseases, strokes, liver diseases and a weakening of the immune system.
In many countries, the harmful use of alcohol is seen as a hindrance to the sustainable social and economic development. Ghana launched a National Alcohol policy in 2017 after many years of working with Key stakeholders to combine the laws that exist on the production, distribution, sale, advertisement and consumption of alcohol.
The policy is aimed at encouraging abstinence, reduce harmful alcohol consumption, follow global best practice and inspire government to lead in ensuring the total compliance of the new policy. It’s also aimed at minimizing the negative effects of alcohol consumption on the individual, family and society as a whole.
Excessive alcohol consumption has immediate effects such as alcohol poisoning which results in liver and renal (kidney) failure as well as diabetes. Alcohol consumption sometimes makes its consumers rowdy and engages in violent acts such as fights and even risky sexual behaviors such as having unprotected sex with multiple partners.
The We Care foundation has adopted counter advertising to educate students on the effects of alcohol on students. Counter advertising is usually done to counter an already existing advert which has opposing views. Our advert seeks to talk about the effects of drinking. We also hope to sensitize, educate and generate response in about 80% of our target audience.
The foundation uses the tagline”…because life is a terrible thing to waste” to inculcate a sense of wellbeing into students. Our vision as a foundation talks about seeing a world where alcohol consumption especially amongst students is drastically eradicated from our world.
In regards to our foundation, we spoke to some students to educate them about alcohol consumption and its effects on their lives as students.
Our main focus as a foundation is to educate students on the learning and memory problems including dementia and poor school performance that comes with excessive alcohol consumption.
Our counter advert is aimed at showing the negative side of alcohol on the body which we do not see. Studies have shown that there is a correlation between the influence of televised portrayals of drinking on young people and on the youth drinking alcohol. We plan on showing how alcoholic beverages adverts portray alcohol as a great product to take people out of their misery but rather it’s systematically destroying their central nervous systems. We also plan to show how many adverts portray alcoholic product like expensive bottles of whiskey as a luxurious and ostentatious good but it rather has dire consequences and effects on the body.
Our counter advert is on an a Whiskey called Royal Salute whiskey with the tagline “Create your own kingdom.” As a counter advert we came up with another slogan “Create your own Kingdom; Your Kingdom shouldn’t be the grave” to sensitize our audience.
Our advert shows what goes on within the body when alcohol is excessively consumed. We show a well dressed male and female who are drinking alcohol but are unaware of the damage the alcohol is doing in their nervous system.
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Adriana Brenda Adom.
wecarefoundation 