The 2012 Free The Bowl^® youth video contest challenges youth to expose the relationship of beer advertising and consumption to violence before, during and after sporting events. The video contest culminates three days before Anheuser-Busch InBev displays their latest offensive beer ads during Super Bowl Bowl XLVI.

Over the past year, there have been a number of highly publicized incidents of alcohol-related violence at professional sporting venues, such as the tragic beating of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stowe at Los Angeles’ Dodger Stadium. Research has shown that sports related alcohol advertising, sponsorship, branding, promotions, and sales practices all fuel over-consumption that leads directly to tens of thousands of annual incidents of alcohol-related violence and harm.
 
Research ahs also shown thatafter every Bud Light-sponsored-NFL game, an estimated 5,000 people leave the stadiums legally drunk. The toxic social norm that binds alcohol to sports must be broken. The Free The Bowl^® youth video contest allows kids to best illustrate that you don’t need to drink alcohol to enjoy the game, despite what the beer ads tell you.

In accordance with the 2012 contest theme and rules, all video entries must incorporate one (1) of the following messages:

• Alcohol ads during sporting events promote binge drinking which contributes to violent behavior.

• The problem with tailgating is that people start drinking hours before the game begins.

• Drinking alcohol during major sporting events like the Super Bowl leads to increased domestic violence.

• After every NFL game, an estimated 5,000 people leave the stadiums legally drunk.

• Half of all U.S. homicides and assaults are related to drinking alcohol.

• You don’t need to drink alcohol to enjoy the game, despite what the beer ads tell you.

Free The Bowl^® is an annual, national, anti-beer-advertising contest that challenges youth to create short videos exposing the harm of exploitative alcohol advertising during the biggest sporting event in America - the Super Bowl. It provides a channel for young people ages 10 to 20 to digitally protest excessive alcohol ads shown during TV sporting events. The contest is a project of Alcohol Justice, a non-profit, alcohol industry watchdog. 

Big Alcohol spends a half billion dollars a year advertising on TV sports events alone. The more alcohol ads kids see, the more likely they are to drink, drink to excess and drink more often. In 2009, the Surgeon General’s Call to Action to Prevent and Reduce Underage Drinking reported that 5,000 people under the age of 21 die annually from injuries caused by alcohol. Hundreds of thousands more suffer alcohol-fueled sexual assaults, serious injuries, diseases and academic failure. The Free The Bowl^® youth video contest challenges youth to question the advertising messages they are force-fed while calling their peers' attention to this critical public health issue. 

This year’s fourth annual contest seeks original, 30 second to 3 minute art or music performance counter-ads with a core message about the relationship of alcohol ads, sponsorship and branding during sporting events to over-consumption, and alcohol-related violence.

Video Prizes (determined by our panel of judges based on the criteria of content appropriateness, creativity, originality, aesthetic value, video execution and quality, effectiveness, compliance with all contest submission requirements, contest-related YouTube Site ratings, and number of views)

• • 1^st place prize $1000
  • 2^nd place prize $500
  • 3^rd place prize $250