Junior Evan Schwartz, a Hatchet columnist, argues that shame is not an effective way to address binge drinking.
According to news reports, a recent Northwestern University study concluded that such ads are not only ineffective at curbing binge drinking, but may in fact encourage college students to party harder. The study says the shame-based campaign arouses feelings of guilt in viewers – guilt that translates into more drinking. This is hardly the way we should be communicating.
Now comes the full disclosure – I am a binge drinker.
Your article has as a premise that the poster of a girl vomiting with the words “best night of my life” is shame-based. I disagree. Although there is a strong dose of sarcasm, the message is more REALITY-based and FEAR-based than shame-based. I hate to vomit, don’t you? And both reality and fear, unlike shame, have been shown to be highly effective in adjusting behavior. This poster graphically reminds us to stop drinking before we get sick, because that behavior actually takes away from our fun instead of enhancing it. Where’s the shame in that?
I remember howling with laughter reading a poster in the Women’s Building at Washington Univ. listing the warning signs of problem drinking. We were college sophomores and we believed it to be our right and our duty to be buzzed on a Friday night. It took me 10 more years of drinking before I realized they were right, and by then it didn’t seem so funny. Fortunately, the 12 steps were there to help me out of the bottle and restore my wonderful life.
I have every confidence that now I will remember the best night of my life.
Barbara, a picture is not going to teach young adults how to drink responsibly. We should direct our resources toward ad campaigns that will be helpful and effective. For example, making sure people know how much a drink will change their BAC, and other factors, such as how much you eat, which increase intoxication. Information campaigns are the most important tool to combat alcohol abuse, yet it is under-provided. People should know how fast their liver processes a drink and how strong different kinds of drinks are so they can calculate what is a safe amount of alcohol to consume given their circumstances.
America needs to wake up. A picture of a girl vomiting in a toilet is not going to turn any young people off of drinking. Besides it gives the impression that drinking necessarily leads to vomiting, which is just misleading. Finally, we need to recognize the fact that many young people will end up vomiting and yes Barbara, everybody hates vomit but it doesn’t mean it will turn people off drinking, or even help them understand how much is too much. We need to find an approach that will help those who choose to consume alcohol, know how to do so safely.
Shame based campains rarely work and won’t in this case, as Anna points out, not everyone vomits when they over drink.
Facts, presented without histeria would be more appropriate. Including how alcohol actually interacts with your body chemistry to do it’s thing. One very early sign of alcolholism is instant tolerance, so being able to “hold your alcohol” is not good news. No vomiting, no hangover is not “no problem”. Kids need to know that alcohol sugars are metabolized first while shoving the nice dinner you may have had into fat for future use. Not pretty but true, no vitamins, no nutrition until all the alcohol calories are dealt with. The metabolites of alcohol are very similar to paint thinner, and very corrosive to your cells. True stuff that everyone should be made aware of.