The Nova Scotia Liquor Corporation is showing the down side of binge drinking, with a twist, through its latest social responsibility campaign from Revolve.
The initiative is designed to raise awareness about the negative social and health consequences resulting from binge drinking among 19-24 males, said Nelson Angel, vice-president and managing partner of the Bedford, N.S.-based agency.
The campaign soft launched last month with two 30-second teaser trailers running in Empire Theatres across the province and on the site Jonzed.com, as a precursor to the seven-minute feature film went live on Wednesday.
The film uses a combination of animation and live-action, and follows the main animated character, Jonze, during a typical night of drunken debauchery.
Jonze starts the evening trying to connect with friends. With blunt and sometimes R-rated language, his friends explain why they won’t hang out with him because of the chaos that tends to ensue when he drinks.
“Jonze, you puked on my dog. Who does that?” asks one friend.
Jonze decides to make his own party and bar hops, making a fool of himself. He ends up at a bar sitting next to a fisherman who stiffs him with the bill, which he’s unable to pay.
To help pay it off, he’s forced to sell body shots. He eventually ends up at another party where he’s gets knocked out by the host; he awakens in jail and none of his friends will bail him out.
“It’s not only humour for humour’s sake,” said Angel. “While it engages that audience, it at no point makes Jonze look like a hero.
“In fact, he’s ostracized<0x2026>and we know that social acceptance is a very effective way to get attention, and once you have [viewers’] attention, then you can deliver the facts.”
Angel said the agency would continue to “nurture” the Jonze character and introduce him at different times of the year.
The site also features trailers, downloads, binge drinking facts and information to help viewers decided if they’ve ever been “Jonzed.”
This site directs users to the “Keep Up With the Jonze” contest, housed on Facebook, for the chance to win a MacBook or an iPhone. To enter, visitors need to become a Jonze fan and recruit friends to increase their chances of winning. Jonze also has his own Facebook profile and 8,000 friends.
Point-of-sale materials, street team activities, and online ads drive people to the site. The videos are also on YouTube.
The site will remain live indefinitely and the cinema ads wrap up next month. Revolve also handled the buy.
