Units – They All Add Up – Government Launches New £10m Alcohol Campaign

26th May 2008

Biggest alcohol awareness campaign to date

The Government launches today a new two-part alcohol 'Know Your Limits' campaign, devised by ad agency VCCP. The first 'Units' strand – with an overall budget from the Department of Health of £6 million for 2008/09 – aims to tell drinkers how many units are in their drinks and help them stick to their limits. It will be followed by a £4 million binge-drinking strand from the Home Office next month. This is the biggest alcohol awareness campaign the Government has ever run.

The campaign will use TV, radio, outdoor, press, online, direct, stakeholder relations and PR. Manning Gottlieb OMD is the media planning agency, with COI Communications responsible for buying; online is run by COI Digital and i-level, with website design by LIDA; direct marketing is by CMW London, with stakeholder and PR work falling to Forster and Fishburn Hedges respectively.

The units campaign uses iconic imagery to help people understand how many units are in typical alcoholic drinks, and how to stay within the recommended daily guidelines for regular drinking of 2-3 units a day for women, and 3-4 units a day for men. The campaign will also warn people about how regularly drinking too much can damage their health.

The campaign website, www.nhs.uk/units, contains a downloadable online calculator to help people add up the units in their drinks. The first wave of advertising will run from today, 19th May to 15th June, beginning with a slot during ITV's Jeremy Kyle Show and also snapping up a prime slot during tonight's Coronation Street. A second wave, from 16th June to the end of August, with illustrations of different shapes and contents of glasses, will represent the possible consequences of excess drinking, such as enlarged liver, breast cancer or increased blood pressure leading to strokes. This phase will also include executions which portray the positive consequences of staying within your limits, such as keeping in shape, and protecting the health of an unborn child.

New YouGov poll results published for launch show that English drinkers don't know exactly how much they are drinking. More than four out of five (82 per cent) claim to know what a unit of alcohol is, yet 77 per cent don't know how many units are in a typical large glass of wine.

More than half (55 per cent) of those questioned thought a large glass of wine (ABV 12 per cent) would contain two units, when it actually contains three. More than a third (35 per cent) did not know that an average pint of beer (ABV 4 per cent) contains two units, while nearly three out of five (58 per cent) did not know a double gin and tonic also contains two units.

The poll revealed that more than half (52 per cent) of adult drinkers in England drink alcohol at least two to three times a week, and one in ten drinks every day.

Public Health Minister, Dawn Primarolo, said

"Glass sizes have grown larger and the strength of many wines and beers has increased, so it's no wonder some of us have lost track of our alcohol consumption.

"This campaign is all about helping people understand how many units are in their favourite drinks, and helping them to keep an eye on their intake for the good of their long-term health.

"Excessive alcohol consumption is proven to play a significant role in the development of numerous diseases, including several cancers, heart disease and stroke. That's why this campaign is so important to the public's health."

Home Office Minister Vernon Coaker said:

"I fully welcome this public information campaign. Combined with wider action across government, this is a vital measure in tackling all forms of excessive drinking."

"In the meantime we will continue to work closely with everyone involved -government agencies and industry alike - to tackle the harm caused by excessive alcohol consumption."