StateWays is the only magazine exclusively covering the control state system within the beverage alcohol industry, with annual updates from liquor control commissions and alcohol control boards and yearly fiscal reporting from control jurisdictions
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availability of additional funding in 2015, the video contest may run again in Pennsylvania next year. FOCUSING ON PARENTS S ocial responsibility is an ongoing effort, and several states have devoted a considerable amount of resources in recent years to developing strategic long- term action plans. Surprisingly, some of these programs don't put young people at the forefront: the primary target audience is parents. In 2006, the Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (DABC) submitted a proposal to the state legislature requesting ongoing funding to launch a comprehensive underage drinking initiative. That same year, the Eliminating Alcohol Sales to Youth (EASY) law enforcement compliance check program was signed into law, limiting youth access to alcohol at off-premise beer retailers, such as grocery and convenience stores. EASY funds quarterly local law enforcement alcohol compliance checks, and provides mandatory standardized off-premise consumption retailer employee training. In addition to signing statewide compliance checks into law, the Utah DABC contracted with an external advertising and communications fi rm in 2006 to create Parents Empowered, a statewide initiative targeting parents as primary infl uencers in their children's decisions of whether to participate in underage drinking. "We knew we needed to get the word out to the public, and that it needed to be a prime-time campaign so people would actually see it," says Douglas Murakami, Alcohol Education Director with the Utah DABC. "There have been many other campaigns out there like this, but ours is unique because it targets the parents instead of the kids. We know parents have a great infl uence on whether their kids drink. They're actually the key infl uence in their kids' lives." Parents Empowered consists of a multi-tiered media campaign incorporating television ads, radio spots, billboards, poster, social media pushes, and more. A comprehensive website, ParentsEmpowered.org, is a prevention-based hub that provides a guided user experience for parents who are interested in learning about the many different steps in the prevention process. The site also features an alternate design in Spanish, which is more than just a translation: it has been completely culturally revamped to meet the specifi c needs of this secondary audience. It's important to note that the goal of Utah's program isn't just to create a media campaign: it is to shift the culture of parents in general, many of whom Murakami says did not believe alcohol was considered a drug, or that underage drinking was a major problem in Utah. To that end, the initial phases of the program featured awareness messaging. Over time, messaging shifted to be more educational in nature. Specifi c campaigns were also crafted for different regions within the state in an effort to give them more of a local feel specifi c to their area. Ultimately, Utah's goal is to eliminate underage drinking in the state. The Parents Empowered program has been running for eight years now and shows no signs of slowing down. The Utah DABC also has concrete statistics that illustrate the program's success rate. According to Monitoring the Future, an ongoing study of the behaviors of children and young adults, the number of minors nationally who admitted to using alcohol within a 30-day period fell by 23% between 2005 and 2013. In the state of Utah, that rate dropped by 40%. Similarly, the trends in lifetime prevalence of use of alcohol dropped nationally by 17% between 2005 and 2013. During the same time period, Utah's lifetime prevalence of use rate declined by 26%. COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS WITH COMMUNITY PARTNERS U tah's impressive program has inspired other states to follow suit by creating similar long-term strategies to 31 StateWays Q www.stateways.com Q March/April 2014 Two successful ongoing programs at the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control include its College Tour and its Virginia College Alcohol Leadership Council, both of which are aimed at the college student population.