Madison was a high income shoreline town faced with a number of challenges for the youth who live there. They are almost invariably high achievers who report feeling extreme pressure to excel. When we launched this campaign, the community social norm was to engage in heavy alcohol consumption and to view youth consumption as a “right of passage”. The interplay of permissiveness and high youth stress led to significant negative health choices and behaviors in the high school. We were called in to provoke a town-wide conversation about healthy decision-making for youth.

With over 90% of the Madison students participating in sports, we focused on increasing performance as the driver for making positive choices. Performance measures increased, the football team won the championship, and the students all reported feeling less pressure, experiencing less peer pressure conflict, and making healthier choices. Watching the video we produced and engaging in a discussion about the content became a pre-requisite to joining a sports team.