Keep Their Future Bright: Evidence-based alcohol prevention campaign for parents
Keep Their Future Bright is an evidence-based, values-led campaign that helps parents and carers have honest conversations with their teenagers about alcohol, supporting them to not supply it before the age of 18.
Developed by the Alcohol and Drug Foundation (ADF) - based on national research with parents - the campaign has been delivered with state and territory government support and philanthropic funding partners.
It has been independently tested following every delivery, with consistent, statistically significant results.
“Parents want the best for their kids, but they’re not always sure what that looks like when it comes to alcohol. Keep Their Future Bright gives them a straightforward, judgement-free way to have that conversation. We have now seen it change parents’ minds across multiple regions. This is not a one-off result – it’s a proven approach, and a message that every parent in the country needs to hear.”
Dr Erin Lalor AM, CEO, Alcohol and Drug Foundation
Campaign objectives
The campaign aims to:
- increase parents’ awareness of the harms associated with underage drinking
- increase understanding of the impact of alcohol on the developing adolescent brain
- shift norms around parental supply of alcohol to children and teenagers
- increase agreement that 18 years is the appropriate age for alcohol consumption
- reduce parents’ intention to supply alcohol to children under 18
- increase access to evidence-based prevention resources and support materials for parents, carers and community partners.
The issue
Parents are the most common source of alcohol for teenagers who drink.
Nearly half (47%) of underage teens who drank alcohol in the past week got their last alcoholic drink from their parent. Teens who are allowed to drink at home experience more alcohol-related harm than those who drink without permission, such as injuries, violence and impacts on school and work.
Despite a common belief that early, supervised drinking teaches responsible use, there's no evidence that it has a protective effect on current or future drinking.
Our approach
Rather than a fear-based campaign, Keep Their Future Bright uses messaging based on parental values, meeting parents where they’re at and reinforcing that not supplying alcohol is a positive, protective choice.
The campaign's messaging was built on national research. Between February and July 2023, the ADF partnered with Common Cause Australia to conduct advocate interviews, public discourse analysis, parent focus groups and message testing with over 1,700 parents nationally.
The research findings resulted in the Parental Supply of Alcohol Message Guide, which set the evidence-based framing used across all campaign materials. The process and its findings are published in a peer-reviewed paper in the Health Promotion Journal of Australia: Addressing Parental Supply of Alcohol to Teens: Development and Message Testing of the Keep Their Future Bright Campaign (Harding et al., 2026).
Delivered, and independently tested, in three regions
- South-Eastern NSW (2024), delivered in the SE NSW PHN region, funded by CO-ORDINAIRE (the South-Eastern NSW Primary Health Network), following foundational research support from the Brian M Davis Charitable Foundation and the Baker Foundation.
- ACT (2025), funded by the ACT Government under the Healthy Canberra Grants program.
- South Australia (2025-26), funded by Preventive Health SA.
Each campaign burst was independently tested using a consistent pre/post survey methodology, and each showed the same pattern: increased understanding of alcohol's harm to the developing brain and agreement that parents should not supply children with alcohol; as well as a meaningful drop in parents' intention to supply alcohol in future.
Our impact
- Over 51 million paid media impressions across all channels, including video, display, search, out-of-home, audio and social.
- Over 186,000 campaign landing page sessions.
- Over 4.6 million completed video views.
- Extended reach through Local Drug Action Teams and Good Sports clubs sharing campaign resources into their own communities.
Consistent results, independently verified across multiple locations
| National sample | NSW (subset of national sample) | South Australia | ACT | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
Agree alcohol harms teen brain development |
79% → 87% |
79% → 92% |
82% → 86% |
86% → 97% |
Agree parents should do their best to make sure their children should never drink alcohol |
47% → 67% |
52% → 69% |
47% → 58% |
51% → 76% |
Likely/very likely to supply alcohol in future |
31% → 20% |
28% → 19% |
32% → 24% |
31% → 19% |
Reconsidering their stance after seeing the campaign* |
47% |
47% |
40% |
55% |
Source: Verian. Parents and Secondary Supply – National. Melbourne: Verian; 2024. Verian. Parents and Secondary Supply – New South Wales. Melbourne: Verian; 2024. Verian. Keep Their Futures Bright ACT. Melbourne: Verian; 2025. Verian. Keep Their Futures Bright SA. Melbourne: Verian; 2026
For parents
Parent-facing resources are available to support conversations with teenagers about alcohol, including the Keep Their Future Bright information page and downloadable conversation guide.
For more information
Keep Their Future Bright is a ready-to-scale prevention campaign with established messaging, tested creative assets, independent evaluation results and practical resources.
For more information, contact Cinzia Marrocco, Head of Marketing and Communications