[National information campaign in France. "One drink is O.K., 3 drinks is asking for trouble"]

Despite a downward trend in the consumption of alcohol during the last 10 years, France remains the main consumer of alcohol in the world. One in every 15 deaths is related to alcohol. Some of the reasons for the decrease in alcohol consumption are: the privilege to distill one's own alcohol is now limited to few people, advertisements are controlled, taxes on liquors have been increased, drunken drivers are severely penalized. Moreover, there have been structural changes, one of them being the installation of an improved piped water system. For the first time, in 1984, the French Committee for Health Education launched an information campaign concerning alcoholism. Traditions and customs related to the consumption of alcohol still have a strong positive connotation in France. So this very important consideration had to be taken into account by the planners of the campaign. The keynote of the campaign was therefore that one should drink moderately. The slogan chosen contains a note of humour which the translation does not render: "One glass is OK, three glasses, and your troubles begin". Television spots were widely used in the campaign as well as pamphlets, and various public relations meetings took place. In a preliminary evaluation, a nation-wide survey showed that 70% of the viewers remembered the slogan three months after the end of the campaign. Out of these, 86% thought the campaign was necessary, and 69% considered the campaign had been well-conceived.