Armed with a set of clever and sometimes startling TV and radio spots, state officials Thursday launched a campaign to eliminate underage drinking in Utah.
The campaign, ParentsEmpowered.org, warns that alcohol can damage young brains — and that parents are the first line of defense.
"Parenting tops peer pressure, and parents don't know that," explained Kyle Curtis of R and R Partners, a Salt Lake marketing company that produced the ads after surveying parents and youths in Utah. According to research amassed by the company:
Alcohol can "seriously damage long- and short-term growth processes" during adolescence, affecting learning and memory. "Frequent drinkers may never be able to catch up in adulthood, since alcohol inhibits systems crucial for storing new information."
Children who begin drinking alcohol before age 15 are five times more likely to develop alcohol problems than those who start after age 21, and 50 times more likely to use cocaine than children who never drink.
Fifty-nine percent of Utah parents are unaware that binge drinking in Utah sometimes begins in the sixth grade.
Parental disapproval of underage drinking is the No. 1 reason youths choose not to drink.
Talk to your children about the long-term dangers of drinking young, first lady Mary Kaye Huntsman urged at Thursday's news conference. She was flanked by area mayors and police chiefs.
"Set clear rules," say several TV and radio spots created for the campaign. The ads also encourage parents to "know your children's friends" and "know where your children are."
In one 30-second spot, a father stands with a clipboard at the foot of the living room stairs, checking off the names of his daughter's friends. In another, a group of young boys huddles around some contraband beer. As one boy raises a bottle to his mouth, a string pulls his arm and then yanks him up the hill. At the end of the string stands his mother.
One after another, Utah officials stood to sound the alarm at Thursday's press conference. "We have a crisis, even in Utah," Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said. "These messages will change minds, not just laws," said Holladay Mayor Dennis Webb. Underage drinking "is not harmless and is not a rite of passage," said Utah Senate Majority Leader Pete Knudsen, one of the sponsors of a law that steps up checks on convenience stores to crack down on alcohol sales to young people.
Since the law went into effect July 1, said Utah Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission chairman Larry V. Lunt, compliance rose from 66 percent to 88 percent.
According to Lunt, the ParentsEmpowered.org campaign is one of the first in the nation to address underage drinking in a comprehensive manner.
"We used to say, 'reducing underage drinking in Utah,"' Lunt said, pointing out the campaign's motto. "You'll notice now it's 'eliminating underage drinking in Utah."'
E-mail: jarvik@desnews.com