TIME will tell whether a public education campaign aimed at the violent behaviour of young men under the influence of alcohol and other drugs has any effect, but doing nothing certainly won’t change things.
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Doctors and nurses in the emergency ward at Orange hospital and thousands like them in hospitals around the state know what it is like trying to deal with people who are so drunk or stoned they don’t know what they’re doing.
It is the medical professionals who too often are on the receiving end of this violent behaviour, as well as the young men themselves, which the campaign “Stop It Before It Gets Ugly” is trying to protect. Hospital staff trying to provide medical care are being abused and attacked because their assailants and their peers don’t know when they have had enough.
Like the Plan B campaign mounted by the NSW Centre For Road Safety, or the Don’t Rush campaign spearheaded by Westmead neurosurgeon Professor Brian Owler, Stop It Before It Gets Ugly aims to change behaviour on a large scale.
Using social media messages and hard-hitting images of bloodied and injured young men, the campaign wants to convince young people to step in and stop the drinking or drug taking of their companions before things spiral out of control.
It is a big ask and will test the persuasiveness of a message delivered by television, posters and social media, and aimed at overriding the extraordinary power of peer groups and contrary media messages trying to link social acceptance and good times with large quantities of alcohol.
The marketing industry, which can be both part of the problem and the solution, will no doubt have a big role to play.
We know there can be significant successes from the constant repetition of a message, backed up by financial penalties - compulsory seatbelt campaigns prove that - but it is hard to gauge how an education campaign will create a lasting impact when it lacks the financial sting.