Let’s Make It A Safe Summer!
Summer – to teens, the word means freedom. School is out and teens have more time with friends, often with reduced supervision. Unfortunately, summer is a time when teens are at high risk to start drinking – and when teen drunk-driving deaths are at their highest. This year’s We Don’t Serve Teens ("WDST") campaign theme targets easy teen access to alcohol with the reminder, “Let's make it a safe summer. Don’t serve alcohol to teens.”
Underage drinking is not inevitable. In fact, over the past decade, teen alcohol use has dropped substantially, along with teen perceptions that alcohol is easy to get.* With continued attention, we can make further progress on this issue! Data show that most teens that drink alcohol get it from social sources -- from friends and family. We want to engage parents, older relatives and friends, communities, government organizations, and businesses in our collective fight against underage drinking.
Over the past two years, the WDST program has received tremendous assistance from its public and private partners, including federal and state government, law enforcement, alcohol and advertising industry members, and consumer groups. The 2007 WDST Week Back-to-School campaign generated an unprecedented 1.1 billion advertising impressions, with a market value of over $9 million, and was recognized by the U.S. Senate and officials from 40 states!
New WDST features for 2008 include a Safe Summer billboard design and downloadable point-of-sale displays, plus new :15 and :30 radio PSAs. The website, www.DontServeTeens.gov, has been refreshed to reflect the most up-to-date data on rates and risks of teen drinking and new Real Stories about what happens when adults host underage parties.
Please join the many organizations – including the U.S. Department of Treasury's Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau, American Beverage Licensees, Beer Institute, Distilled Spirits Council, National Alcohol Beverage Control Association, National Association of Broadcasters, National Liquor Law Enforcement Association, National Consumers League, National Conference of State Liquor Administrators, Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools, Outdoor Advertising Association of America, Responsible Retailing Forum, Students Against Destructive Decisions, Wine and Spirits Wholesalers of America and others – who support this message. Help by posting Safe Summer point-of-sale materials in your community; sponsoring a billboard; asking your local media to run a PSA; and posting a WDST banner on your site. Learn more @ http://www.dontserveteens.gov/safesummer.html.
* L.D. Johnston et al., Monitoring the Future National Results on Adolescent Drug Use: Overview of Key Findings (2007) at Tables 3 and 14. As compared to 1996, alcohol use by 8th, 10th, and 12th graders has declined by 39, 17, and 12 percent, respectively.
|
