Wellington City Mayor Kerry Prendergast has said Wellington has a binge-drinking problem. The council says it’s had success with the “Stay Safe in the City” campaign, a Kiwi take on popular programmes Sex and the City and Friends, but a group of young Wellingtonians aren’t so sure.

In 2007 Wellington City Council’s “Stay Safe in the City” campaign won a top honour at national safety awards. A survey showed 84% of students were more aware of staying safe as a result of it. However Capital Times spoke to Wellingtonians who said it was out-of-touch.
“The billboards are a joke. I don’t take them seriously. The people on the billboard look stupid, and I don’t want to be their friends,” says 29-year-old Kim.
“They make me laugh and then I think about some of the legless girls I have seen around town,” says Daniel, 24.
Lisa, 30, says as a woman who watches Sex and the City she liked them and they made her laugh. “If I were younger, it might promote awareness about looking out for your girlfriends, because some young girls are quite naïve. But if you went into the health effects of alcohol on women and what they will look like in time if they keep drinking – using vanity – I think that would be more effective. The [current] billboards are soft.”
Laurie Gabites, the council’s manager of city safety, says analysis about the effectiveness of the Friends billboards (see right) may result in a new themed billboard next year.
The billboards aren’t aimed to be a slur on binge drinking and are instead focused on safety.
“The risk occurs when people drink too much and separate themselves. In that context, I suppose [the campaign] is thinking about binge drinking,” Gabites says. “But  we’re saying ‘this is a vibrant city and there are some ways you can stay safe’.”
As well as billboards, the “Stay Safe in the City” campaign also involved the message being spread on posters, radio and newspaper advertising, giveaways and free top-up deals at Burger King.
While important, campaigns such as this, and the council’s proposed 24/7 liquor ban in public places (see story, page 2), don’t address the million-dollar question about why people drink.
“No-one talks about it,” says Lisa who stopped drinking a month ago after becoming concerned about the health implications of her drinking.
“Alcohol is socially acceptable. Not drinking in New Zealand is almost a social faux-pas – it’s what you do to meet people, it’s a social lubricant, it’s something you do when you’re bored.”
Most people she knows have an “I’ve worked really hard all week and I deserve to drink” attitude.
“Alcohol has got out of hand. People don’t really go out for dinner, have a glass of wine and see a play like they do overseas.”
Catherine, 22, agrees. She thinks the heavy value on consumerism is the problem.
“Heaps of people think they need as much money as possible so they can have more whenever they want and live to excess.” Drinking is just part of that excess, she says.
Daniel adds that the geographically isolated and multi-cultural nature of New Zealand creates people unsure of their place in the world, and drinking together forges an identity.
“The only people I know who don’t drink already have a drinking problem,” says Kim. “Maybe people work too hard and are deeply unsatisfied with their real lives. It’s escapism.”
Eighteen-year-old Chris says when a friend says “let’s do something”, the first thing that comes to mind is drinking.
“New Zealanders are really uptight and we think we need alcohol to let loose. It’s boredom.”
All of these people are intelligent, articulate and have a genuine concern about the effects of drinking. However, other than Lisa, they continue to do it, despite the horror stories.
Kim remembers kissing a 60-something-year-old taxi driver when she was 21 and drunk, because she didn’t have enough money for the fare.
Daniel woke up in a forest “somewhere” unsure of how he got there after a binge session.
Lisa stole a street cleaning vehicle and drove it around the city.
Catherine woke up in her own vomit and had to be taken home by two kind women. She then threw up all over their van.
Chris was once too drunk to help his even drunker friend and left him in town. His friend woke up the next day in someone else’s house covered in blood because he’d smashed a window to get in. He still has scars on his hand.
Stories like these are any parent’s nightmare. Even scarier is that most young people have similar ones.
It begs the question; why are we spending big money on campaigns that basically say, “drink, but be safe”, or liquor bans that will simply displace drinkers to the suburbs?
These young people say, “ have a real and hard-hitting discussion about why New Zealanders drink”.
(All names have been changed.)
Sophie Schroder.