Summary Of The Campaign 'No Excuse Needed'

In September 2014 VicHealth launched the ‘No Excuse Needed’ campaign (VicHealth, 2015) to target 16 to 29 year olds in an effort to challenge their perception that young people consume alcohol heavily on a regular basis. This health promotion campaign was based on a study that showed many people in this targeted group felt a higher pressure to drink around others and are more likely have positive feeling towards drunkenness. This study also showed that 61% of young people do not consume alcohol with the intention on inebriation, they continue to imbibe due to the pressure they feel. Guo et al. (2015) discuss the correlation between peer pressure and the excessive consumption of alcohol increases when individuals are among peers, as they do

The campaign was run from September to December of 2014, which can be considered party season due to the end of school year and Christmas. This campaign was released at an appropriate time to positively influence the decisions of the target group (Lim et al. 2015). Although the campaign did not run for an extended period of time, this could affect the amount of people who were influenced by it, although Rasińska, Nowakowska and Nowomiejski (2014) notes that campaign such as this are there to encourage reflection on individual behaviour but may not render tangible results at first. The campaign could have also utilised social media such as Facebook, Youtube, twitter and Instagram more as their target audience is in a generation that receives a majority of their information from the Internet rather than mainstream media (Grafenauer et al 2015). To find the results of this campaign a study would need to be conducted, on how the target group perceived the campaign and if they made any changes to their behaviour as a result of the information they gain from it (Livingston et al.

A majority of the population consume alcohol at a rate that does not influence their health negatively. However, there is a major issue of misuse and abuse of alcohol in the population. Although surveys have shown a decrease in the amount of the population that is partaking in these behaviours, there is still 20% of the population that engage in the harmful use of alcohol. The age group of 16-29 year old is a particular area of concern as studies have shown they are more susceptible to peer pressure and they are more likely to feel positive towards intoxication. There are many negative impact from the misuse of alcohol both immediate and long term, ranging from serious health conditions such as heart and liver disease to cancer. The misuse of alcohol can also negatively impact on mental health with a correlation between alcohol abuse and suicide. VicHealth introduced ‘No Excuse Needed’ campaign to shine a light on the fact that 61% of this group do not intentionally drink to become intoxicated and that it is okay to stop drinking. The campaign could have utilised more social media as this is where the target group receives a majority of their information, this would have made the campaign more effective. However, the structure of the filmed advertisements was appropriately angled at the target group by telling a story. Motivational interviewing is an important