E-Malt.com News article: Finland: Finnish breweries for moderate drinking

Finnish breweries have launched a campaign to tackle the growing problem of young adults' binge drinking, using the slogan "You're a jerk when you're drunk!" to get them to drink in moderation, .

"We want to change attitudes to encourage responsible drinking. We have been fighting alcohol abuse and underage drinking for a long time," the head of the Finnish federation of brewers and soft drink producers, Timo Jaatinen, said on Tuesday.

The slogan will be plastered on billboards across Finland's cities and on the Internet site www.kannissa-olet-aalio.fi, featuring explicit and gritty photos of a young woman vomiting into her handbag, a man wetting his pants, or a girl passed out among empty glasses with her hosiery around her knees.

The campaign is targetted at 18-to-30-year-olds. Alcohol abuse is the main public health concern in Finland.

In 2005, alcohol was the primary cause of death among Finns aged 15 to 64, ahead of cardiovascular disease, accidents and cancer, according to Finland's statistics agency.

Some 12 percent of 18-year-old Finnish men were binge drinkers in 2005, up from seven percent in 2003, statistics showed.


30 August, 2007