Kevin Rudd has acted swiftly to put curbs on binge drinking by teenage girls. He has raised the tax on so called " Alco-Pop " drinks by twenty-five percent - increasing the price by about one dollar per drink.
The measure will look good in the media - but it will have little effect in the medium term. Girls will certainly grizzle at the price rise - and some may experiment with other forms of liquor - but three months from now those same girls will simply pay the higher price and continue to binge drink as before.
Price is never a constraint to addiction. Just look at cigarettes and illicit drugs. Tobacco attracts ever increasing taxation but the drop in smoker's numbers is more a case of the successful advertising of health risks. The advertising people have been very clever at depicting the long term health effects of smoking - but the one age group with disregard for health - is teenagers !
Perhaps there is an opportunity to reduce binge drinking by teenage girls if the advertising industry can conjure up a message to show that binge drinking reduces their attraction to boys.
Teenage girls will go to any length to be " cool " and attired in the latest fashion. They will become anorexic to ape the models depicted on fashion magazines.
The " magic bullet " to making the average girl stop and think before opening that bottle has yet to be found, but it may well be a stroke of genius from some advertising designer which hits the right note in convincing girls that excess drinking is a sure turnoff for the opposite sex.
In the meantime, Kevin Rudd's move will go a long way to free more funds for anti-alcohol advertising - and the vast residue from the tax increase will disappear into that bottomless pit known as " consolidated revenue " !
No comments:
Post a Comment