DrinkWise has placed a major focus on parents’ roles as influencers and role models in their children’s lives when it comes to their future consumption of alcohol.

Launched in 2008, the Kids Absorb Your Drinking campaign marked DrinkWise Australia’s initial step towards bringing about generational change in attitudes to alcohol.  The campaign highlighted the strong positive correlation between the way parents drink and how their children grow up to drink. The key to this campaign was ‘holding up a mirror’ to parents’ drinking, to increase their awareness of the effects of role modelling and to positively influence their children’s future drinking behaviour.

The multifaceted Kids Absorb Your Drinking campaign included a major television commercial supported by outdoor, digital and consumer information.  The campaign achieved positive results with almost three in ten parents reporting that they had subsequently reduced the amount of alcohol consumed in front of their children.

Kids and Alcohol Don’t Mix was released in 2009 to encourage parents to delay their child’s introduction to alcohol. DrinkWise recognised that for many parents talking to their kids about alcohol and setting clear boundaries and expectations was a daunting task.  The campaign captured a common scenario that occurs in the family home when teenagers ask if they can ‘have a drink’, and sought to encourage parents to agree on a strategy for talking to their kids about why delaying the introduction of alcohol is important.

(Further information about these campaigns is available in the attachments on this page).

DrinkWise also recognises the important role grandparents play in teenagers’ lives.  Like parents, grandparents can have a positive influence on their grandchildren’s future relationship with alcohol.

DrinkWise worked with former America’s Cup Skipper and proud grandfather, John Bertrand, to produce the following video to provide grandparents with advice on how to talk to their grandchildren about alcohol.  Further information about grandparents’ roles and responsibilities can be found here.

The DrinkWise Parents Campaign has continued to evolve. DrinkWise partners with the Outdoor Media Association (OMA) to encourage parents to reflect on the way they drink in front of their children via DrinkWise in front of your kids, reminding parents about the importance of positive role modelling.  This message is also promoted via a partnership with parents site Mamamia.  MamaMia’s reputation as a trusted source of information for parents, as well as its strong social media presence, enables DrinkWise to promote our key campaign messages to this audience.

The partnership includes a series of collaborative videos with well-known and influential media personalities and parents of teens, as well as editorial pieces promoted through MamaMia and other well-known parenting websites.  This creates a forum for parents to discuss their views and share their tips, and directs parents toward the DrinkWise Website for further information.

DrinkWise - Kids and Alcohol Don't Mix brochure