Change4Life gives alcohol higher profile

The Coalition Government has unveiled its new Change4Life Three Year Social Marketing Strategy, up-dated to give alcohol a higher priority. Change4Llife is the brand name given to the health promotion campaign, originally focusing on the issues of diet, physical exercise and obesity. The alcohol component of the campaign has now been enhanced to support the government’s overall alcohol strategy when that is launched later in the year. Research conducted in 2010 to explore the potential for Change4Life to ‘stretch’ into topic areas beyond diet and physical activity found that the brand had the potential to operate closest to the increasing risk end of the spectrum and to encourage moderation as part of broader lifestyle changes.

Change4Life first introduced alcohol into its messaging via the adult launch commercial, ‘Alfie’ which encouraged adults, in a non-threatening way, to think about how their alcohol consumption might be affecting their health, and which was well received. However, it is known from qualitative research that many adults underestimate both the amount of alcohol that they drink and its potential to harm their health. People can be unwilling to confront the reality of how much they drink and may value the role alcohol plays in their life. In consequence, even when they are motivated to make changes to their lifestyles, alcohol tends to be the area chosen last. The Government has, therefore, decided to step up the alcohol-related component of Change4Life communication by:

• re-running the ‘Alfie’commercial

• introducing new communication that focuses on the health harms of alcohol

• encouraging parents to talk to their children about alcohol and alcohol health harms and to delay initiating their children into alcohol consumption until they are 15 (as recommended by the Chief Medical Offi cer for England)

Beyond what is covered by Change4Life, marketing will support the alcohol health harms strategy by:

• including messaging on binge drinking within the youth programme

• providing bespoke information for people living with conditions (as part of the activity targeting older people)