Sugary drinks such as soft drinks, sport and energy drinks, fruit drinks and cordial contribute the most added sugar to Australian’s diets. Frighteningly, a single 600ml bottle of soft drink contains about 16 packs of sugar, and if you sip on one of these bottles per day for a year, that amounts to over 23 kilos of sugar consumed annually.
Regular consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages can cause tooth decay and, in the long run unhealthy weight gain, and obesity. Sugar can cause toxic fat around your vital organs and lead to cancer, type 2 diabetes and other serious health problems. Yet the beverage industry continues to entice young Australians into buying their products, using manipulative marketing and advertising techniques to glorify their products, positioning them in a positive light as though these products are the key to a better life.
In response, Cancer Council Victoria and the Rethink Sugary Drink alliance, in partnership with the nib Foundation launched “Full of Crap”, a graphic counter-campaign hijacking these manipulative marketing tactics to change the glorified perception of sugary drinks and highlight the health harms associated with drinking them.
The campaign was active for three weeks across a number of communication channels including social media (Facebook, Youtube, Tik Tok) and the Rethink Sugary Drink Website. The campaign activity was primarily targeted at young males aged 18-24, the largest consumers of sugar sweetened beverages. The campaign delivered strong results and generated over 665,00 completed video views, and had a potential total audience reach of 3,134,300 Australians, encouraging people to ignore the marketing and rethink sugary drinks, Aussies are sweet enough!
Thank you to the nib Foundation for supporting this project.
