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The Century Council's BAE Campaign
The Century Council commissioned national survey to gauge the public's awareness of drinking and driving laws in their state. The most recent survey conducted in 2002 included a new question which asked Americans if they planned to drink alcoholic beverages during the upcoming holiday season.
- While 42 percent of adults responded that they planned to drink beverage alcohol during the holiday season, 61 percent of those that plan to drink do not know their state's BAC limit for driving.
- 70 percent of adults did not know the BAC limit for driving in their own state. Only 30 percent of the general public could correctly identify their state's BAC level for driving.
The Century Council developed a bilingual outreach campaign designed to increase awareness among Americans of what their state's BAC law is and, at the same time, educate adults about how drinking affects their individual BAC.
The Blood Alcohol Educator Interactive Program
The centerpiece of the campaign is an innovative mini-CD-ROM called the Blood Alcohol Educator (BAE) created in English and Spanish. Over 200,000 BAE CD-ROMs have been distributed to the public free of charge.
The BAE Cybervan
The Council promoted the CD-ROM with a 17-foot vibrantly colored traveling van bearing the BAE program logos in both English and Spanish.
The BAE van would build out into an interactive cyber-café that included three computer stations which allowed visitors to try the BAE program and learn the facts about blood alcohol concentration.
Originally launched in Texas as a pilot project in October 1999, the vehicle quickly became an immediate success and traveled over 200,000 miles. The van was retired in the fall of 2005.
Nationwide Outreach
As of November 2004 the BAE Campaign has reached the following 48 states, including the District of Columbia:
| Alabama Arizona Arkansas California Colorado Connecticut Dist. of Columbia Florida Georgia Idaho Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana |
Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New Mexico New York North Carolina North Dakota |
Ohio Oklahoma Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina South Dakota Tennessee Texas Utah Vermont Virginia West Virginia Washington Wisconsin Wyoming |
Bilingual Resources
Collateral materials are in English and Spanish and include:
- BAE brochures
- Television commercials
- BAE posters
- BAE website at www.b4udrink.org
- B4Udrink.org napkins, coasters and stickers
About The Century Council
Launched in 1991, The Century Council is funded by America's leading distillers. The Council's mission is to promote responsible drinking and discourage all forms of irresponsible consumption through education, communications, research, law enforcement and other programs.
The Century Council, launched in May 1991 and funded by America's leading distillers, promotes responsible decision-making regarding beverage alcohol and fights alcohol abuse, focusing on drunk driving and underage drinking problems. The Council's funding companies (Bacardi USA, Inc., Brown-Forman, Constellation Brands, Inc., DIAGEO, Future Brands LLC, Hood River Distillers, Inc., and Sidney Frank Importing Co., Inc.) have invested more than $160 million over the last fifteen years in programs that fight against the misuse of their products.
The Century Council is headquartered in Washington, DC. An independent Advisory Board made up of distinguished leaders in business, government, education, medicine and other relevant disciplines assists the Council in development of programs and policies.
The Century Council, operating on the philosophy that collective action can have a greater impact than individual efforts, involves all sectors of the community including beverage alcohol wholesalers and retailers, law enforcement, public officials, educators, insurers, health care professionals and private citizen organizations in the fight against alcohol misuse.
