Key partners within Liverpool have for many years launched public awareness campaigns aimed at tackling the various aspects of alcohol consumption.

However, as the issue has continued to increase in prevalence there has been concern that the public are being bombarded with a huge variety of competing alcohol related messages due to the volume of campaigns launched by partners at the same time.

In September 2005, the Chief Executive of Liverpool City Council requested that Community Safety arrange a Liverpool Partnership Group half day seminar at the Town Hall to:

• Increase awareness and understanding of the impact of alcohol related harm in the City.
• To agree some key actions in respect of dealing with the impact of alcohol. Concentrating on four main workshop areas of health, crime, public transport and business.
• Develop a Social Marketing Campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol misuse.
• Arrange a follow up event in six months time to see how the key actions were progressing.

In December 2005, Citysafe partners ran a pre-Christmas Alcohol Misuse Awareness Campaign entitled ‘Respect Alcohol, Respect Yourself’.

Following on from this campaign, the key partners - Liverpool City Council and the Liverpool Primary Care Trusts considered how they could work together to maximise one of the key messages undertaken by the Liverpool Partnership Group. from the seminar on 5th September 2005; which was to develop a Social Marketing Campaign to raise awareness of the dangers of alcohol misuse.

The proposal therefore was that Citysafe - Liverpool’s Crime and Disorder Reduction Partnership work with all the strategic partners: Liverpool City Council, Liverpool Primary Care Trusts, Merseyside Police and Merseyside Fire and Rescue Service to devise an overarching alcohol brand to unify all alcohol related campaign work.

From the concerted efforts of all partners, the Pssst! Be Alcohol Aware identity is now established and will be used long term to address the three primary areas of: health, law enforcement/crime reduction and community safety.