“Get in the taxi. We need five more?” she cursed at her inebriated friends. Taxis are lined patiently waiting for students to leave the pre-drinking lair of their accommodation.
Two girls teeter past stumbling in their heels. One whispers loudly “when we get there, we are going straight to the bar and asking for the best shot they serve.”
Guys stroll past with cans stashed in the back pocket of their trousers. They break into song and some bizarre buffoon-like dance.
This was a quiet night.
Drink Aware
Two DCU campaigns based on the repercussions of excessive drinking have been shortlisted to the final of the DARE2BDRINKAWARE.ie competition.
DCU students Aisling Sinclair and Sam Pearson launched the website for their campaign with the tag line “Don’t Lose Sleep Over Where You’ll Wake Up” last Monday. The campaign specifically focuses on the locations where students wake up after a night out and how drinking an excessive amount of alcohol contributes to this.
Pearson said: “All of us have embarrassing stories about where we have woken up after a night out, we wanted to address this taboo and make students realise the consequences of excessive drinking. The reason we did this is because we felt that many campaigns preach to students using facts and figures which they will glance over. This way we identify with the young target audience.”
“Neknomination”
Pacing is heavily promoted by drinkaware.ie and this is something that Pearson says the campaign will re-enforce along with promoting the idea that you should never be pressured into doing something that you don’t want.
This peer-pressure was seen in recent weeks as young people across Ireland were nominated to take part in the notorious online drinking challenge called ‘Neknomination’. The result of drinking copious amounts of alcohol in one sitting was blamed for the deaths of two young men in Ireland.
“As we are all beginning to realise, Neknomination is far from a game. When an individual drinks the amount of alcohol that has been seen in these videos, the body is not able to cope,” he added.
“Our campaign will advise young people to be aware that alcohol limits vary from person to person. You’re limit is individual to you, so never assume that your tolerance is the same as anyone else.”
DCU Students’ Union is fully supporting both student initiatives. Welfare Officer Lorna Finnegan wholeheartedly disagrees with the peer pressure involved in drinking games and nominating people to out-do each other by posting videos online.
She has urged students to remove any videos involving Neknominations from their social media profile. “If an employer googles a student’s name for a potential job position, a Neknomination video in connection to their name would look very unprofessional.”
The “Don’t Lose Sleep” campaign video will be released on March 1st.
Ciara Moore
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