Drinkaware wish to make it clear that drinks promotions like the so-called “Black Friday sale” at Lar Corbett’s Bar in Thurles, have no place in our society. Drinkaware does not condone this type of promotion or any other initiative which actively encourages people to drink to excess in this extremely dangerous way. An older version of our logo has appeared on the ad. We want to make it clear that we distance our organisation and our work from this activity which actively encourages irresponsible and dangerous alcohol consumption. Including the Drinkaware logo does not absolve this or any establishment of its responsibilities around dangerous and reckless drinking. This ad promotes unacceptable and reckless behaviour and is in complete opposition to our work. Our mission is to work with others to fundamentally and permanently change attitudes and behaviours so that drinking to excess and drinking underage become unacceptable.
In Ireland, the facts speak for themselves: three people die every day from alcohol-related conditions; the World Health Organisation found Ireland to have the second-highest rate of binge drinking in the world; our young people are drinking more on single occasions than their European counterparts. Drinkaware is currently working towards our vision of an Ireland where alcohol is not misused to ensure that statistics like these are not a part of our future.
To achieve this, we provide information and tools to help people to better understand their drinking and ensure that they adhere to the HSE low-risk guidelines for alcohol consumption – 11 standard drinks (110g pure alcohol) spread out over the week for women and 17 standard drinks (170g pure alcohol) for men. Drinking above these guidelines and in particular binge drinking (consuming six or more standard drinks in one sitting), further increases the risks associated with alcohol.
We wish to finally restate that these binge drinking campaigns are damaging, reckless, and irresponsible. We urge people thinking of engaging with these campaigns or promotions to think again – the cost of alcohol may be cheap but that is nothing compared to the cost to your physical and mental health both now and in the future.