EDITORIAL – Old school ads not the right message

Here’s a shocker: People under the age of 21 drink alcohol.

After receiving data from a poll… Here’s a shocker: People under the age of 21 drink alcohol.

After receiving data from a poll commissioned by The Century Council, a national alliance of distillers, the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board has decided the best way to combat this problem is an ad campaign geared toward parents.

Why target the folks when the kids are the ones drinking?

The Century Council’s poll, which asked young people ages 10 to 18 where they got alcohol from if and when they drank, revealed that 65 percent of young drinkers get alcohol from family and friends.

“That’s a number that almost boggles the mind,” Jonathan Newman, chairman of the PLCB, said.

While the poll results are interesting — only 3 percent use fake identification; a mere 5 percent spend extra cash on hiring a stranger to make the purchase on their behalf; 7 percent turn to the spirits stores and beer distributors that don’t check the minors’ IDs and 20 percent have “other means” — they are rather inconclusive.

There is no distinction made between how a minor gets a drink and if a minor gets drunk. Nor is there further investigation into the 65 percent supplied by family and friends as to what percentage stole the liquor and how many young people were given alcohol, and under what circumstances. Some families do allow the child to have a drink with the family, but drunkenness and alcohol abuse are heavily frowned upon.

So instead of doing further research, the PLCB paints a picture for parents through their new ad campaign: Some bored teens travel from liquor store to liquor store, trying to procure some beer or wine coolers. (Check the heavy alcohol content in those choices.) They are rejected every time. Finally, they go home and decide to raid their parents’ stash of liquor.

That television commercial is reminiscent of the 1980s after-school specials that became too ridiculous for either parent or child to relate to. This type of messaging about a very serious issue deserves more than a retro-recycled, blast-from-the-past public service announcement.

Rather than remind parents that 65 percent of minors get alcohol from friends and relatives, the PLCB should use April — Pennsylvania’s Alcohol Awareness Month — to educate families, reminding parents that they are their children’s first teachers and rule enforcers, not just their first liquor suppliers.