Get Your Sexy Back

Last updated

The initiative's logo Get your sexy back logo.jpg
The initiative's logo

"Get Your Sexy Back" (GYSB) is a youth-led anti-binge drinking initiative that aims to promote responsible drinking behaviour, by raising the social currency of moderation. The first such initiative in Singapore, the programme was launched in December 2007 and spearheaded by Asia Pacific Breweries (APBS), an Asian Brewery listed on the Singapore Exchange. [1]

Contents

A recurring message of the campaign is that consuming 5 or more units of alcohol at a single sitting constitutes binge drinking. [2] This is only one possible definition of binge drinking and other standards have been adopted by anti-binge drinking campaigns in countries like Australia by the National Health and Medical Research Council. In 2008, GYSB released the findings of a survey into the drinking habits of young adults in Singapore aged between 18 and 25. The findings of this survey showed an increasing prevalence of binge drinking among youths, [3] and a greater tendency towards excessive drinking among female drinkers. [4]

History

Get Your Sexy Back was originally conceived by four students from the Nanyang Technological University (NTU), as part of a school project. The students identified several factors responsible for binge drinking among youths in Singapore and approached APBS for support. The programme was subsequently adopted by APBS as part of its corporate social responsibility initiatives in Singapore.

GYSB was first launched in December 2007 [5] with the aim of encouraging responsible drinking behaviour among young adults from 18 – 25 years old by raising the social currency of moderation. The programme engages its target audience through various youth-related activities and platforms, broadly spanning the areas of music, fashion, sports and friendship. [6] GYSB's slogan: “It’s not the drinking, it’s how you’re drinking” was adapted with permission from a New Zealand campaign by the Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC). [7]

The programme has been present at a number of youth-oriented events, particularly in conjunction with tertiary student associations and national youth bodies. These events include the NTU Surf n Sweat, National Vertical Marathon, the Seventeen magazine Queen of Queens and the Singapore Management University (SMU) Waikiki. In partnering these events, the programme has frequently drawn on support from other corporate partners including Singaporean fashion label NewUrbanMale.com, outdoor media specialists Clear Channel Singapore, as well as convenience chains Cheers and 7-Eleven.

The campaign has also been actively involved in the recruitment of youth volunteers and volunteer ambassadors to pledge their support for the cause of moderate drinking. Recruitment of volunteers has mainly been conducted online via the campaign website, in the various tertiary campuses, as well as at roadshows held at shopping malls.

In February 2010, an article in the TODAY newspaper cited GYSB as an example of a highly successful youth-oriented campaign. The article also stated that more and more youths have been pledging their support for moderate drinking since the launch of GYSB in 2007. [8]

Platforms

The GYSB programme encourages youths to live active, healthy social lives by engaging in activities other than binge drinking. It has grouped these activities into four main youth-oriented platforms.

Music

To coincide with the relaunch of GYSB on 16 October 2008, [9] singer-songwriter Jillian-Marie Thomas, also a volunteer ambassador, wrote and composed a theme song for the GYSB programme.

GYSB also entered into a collaboration with Sony Music Entertainment, producing a set of GYSB CD inserts which were released together with the launch of the 'Capricorn' album from Taiwanese singer Jay Chou in October 2008.

On 4 April 2009, GYSB staged a concert at The Heeren shopping mall featuring a Singaporean band, "Da Feng Chui". The band, who was an on Channel U's Superband 2008 talent-search, and also launched their debut album in conjunction with the concert dedicating one of the songs on the album to the Get Your Sexy Back campaign.

On 9 December 2009, GYSB staged a music concert in support of responsible drinking at popular nightspot Velvet Underground. The concert featured regional superstar JJ Lin, SuperBand 2008 runners-up Da Feng Chui, Project Superstar alumni Chen Diya and Carrie Yeo, homegrown singer/songwriter Jillian Marie Thomas, and indie-alternative band en(x). [10] All proceeds from the concert were donated to sporting clubs and student associations from Singapore's three main universities. Also announced at the concert were a new range of GYSB T-shirts, designed by local fashionistas, designers and fashion bloggers; and the details of a new membership benefits programme dubbed the GYSB Friends Card.

Fashion

Singaporean fashion and lifestyle label NewUrbanMale.com (NUM) designed an exclusive range of 'NUMXGYSB' T-shirts [11] in October 2008. The shirts, each bearing the slogan "Two beers or not two beers" were retailed at selected NUM stores island-wide and were designed by NUM founder Shenzi Chua who has likened the slogan to a question on the difficult choices confronting youths when dealing with alcohol.

In December 2009, GYSB launched the third generation of GYSB T-shirts with a collection of three designs by local fashion bloggers Dinnie & Ridhwan, design student Sid Lim and T-shirt printing specialists Ministry of Press.

Sports

On 18 Oct 2008, GYSB teamed up with Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Sports Club to reach out to students at the NTU Street Challenge, the university's largest annual on-campus sporting event.

GYSB was also supported by the National Vertical Marathon 2009, Singapore Management University (SMU) Surf n Sweat 2009, SMU Waikiki, Freshmen Sports Orientation Camp and Sports Fiesta.

Friends

In 2007, the student founders of GYSB created a group page on the popular social media platform, Facebook to serve as an avenue where like-minded youths could come together and share their thoughts and experiences on moderate drinking.

In April 2009, a group of National University of Singapore (NUS) students, created and distributed a game via Facebook called "GYSB Matching Fury" as a way of spreading the message of moderate drinking via social networks.

In December 2009, GYSB announced the launch of a membership benefits programme called the GYSB Friends Card. Given away free to programme supporters, the card gives discounts and other privileges at retailers across Singapore. Current commercial partners include Leftfoot, Times the Bookshop and Ministry of Press.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanyang Technological University</span> Autonomous university in Singapore

Nanyang Technological University (NTU) is a public university in Singapore. Founded in 1981, it is also the second-oldest autonomous university in the country. NTU is frequently ranked within the world's top 30 universities according to most major international rankings, and is widely-considered to be one of the two most prestigious universities in Singapore, the other being the National University of Singapore.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanyang University</span> Former university in Singapore

Nanyang University (南洋大學) was a private university in Singapore between 1956 and 1980. During its existence, it was Singapore's only private university in the Chinese language. In 1980, Nanyang University was merged with the University of Singapore to form the National University of Singapore (NUS). It was only until 2005 that another private school in Singapore, SIM University, was established.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alcohol advertising</span> Promotion of alcoholic beverages

Alcohol advertising is the promotion of alcoholic beverages by alcohol producers through a variety of media. Along with nicotine advertising, alcohol advertising is one of the most highly regulated forms of marketing. Some or all forms of alcohol advertising are banned in some countries. There have been some important studies about alcohol advertising published, such as J.P. Nelson's in 2000.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Heineken Asia Pacific</span> Brewing company in Singapore

Heineken Asia Pacific, formerly Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) is a Singaporean brewery company. Founded in 1931 as a joint venture between Heineken International and Fraser and Neave, it was renamed Asia Pacific Breweries (APB) in 1989 and given its present name after merging with Heineken Asia Pacific in 2013.

Rui En is a Singaporean actress, singer and host.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts</span> Constituent art school of the University of the Arts Singapore

Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts is a publicly-funded post-secondary arts institution in Singapore, and a constituent college of the University of the Arts Singapore (UAS) from 2024.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joanne Peh</span> Singaporean actress and host (born 1983)

Joanne Peh Wei Siew is a Singaporean actress and television host. She is married to Singapore-based Chinese actor Qi Yuwu.

Alcohol is any organic compound in which a hydroxyl functional group (-OH) is bound to a carbon atom, usually connected to other carbon or hydrogen atoms. An important class are the simple acyclic alcohols, the general formula for which is CnH2n+1OH. Of those, ethanol (C2H5OH) is the type of alcohol found in alcoholic beverages, and in common speech the word alcohol refers specifically to ethanol. Articles related to alcohol include:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Teo Ser Luck</span> Singaporean politician

Teo Ser Luck is a Singaporean former politician who served as Minister of State for Manpower between 2015 and 2017, Minister of State for Trade and Industry between 2011 and 2015 and Mayor of North East District between 2009 and 2017. A member of the governing People's Action Party (PAP), he was the Member of Parliament (MP) representing the Punggol South ward of Pasir Ris–Punggol GRC between 2006 and 2011 and the Punggol Central ward between 2011 and 2020.

The S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies (RSIS) is an autonomous graduate school and policy-oriented think tank of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Founded in 1996 as the Institute of Defence and Strategic Studies (IDSS), RSIS offers graduate education in international affairs and strategic studies, taught by an array of international faculty. The school is named in honour of S. Rajaratnam, Singapore's former Deputy Prime Minister who had also been its longest-serving Foreign Minister. It is regarded as one of the best graduate schools for international studies in Asia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">J C Sum</span> Singaporean marketer, author, and illusion designer

J C Sum is a Singaporean hybrid marketer, author, content creator, former illusionist and illusion designer.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tan Teck Meng</span> Singaporean academic (died 2011)

Tan Teck Meng was a professor of Accounting from Singapore Management University (SMU), member of the board of directors of four public companies in Singapore, serving as chairman of the audit committees of two of the companies, and honorary professor of Finance and Economics of Dongbei University of Finance and Economics, China.

Zhang Haijie is a China-born Singaporean news anchor contracted under Mediacorp.

Ng Hui is a Singaporean educator, former actress and television host. She was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 2000 to 2012.

Cruz Teng is a former Singaporean radio and television host. He is currently a communications professional.

Binge drinking is the practice of consuming excessive amounts of alcohol in a short period of time. Due to the idiosyncrasies of the human body, the exact amount of alcohol that would constitute binge drinking differs among individuals. The definitions of binge drinking are also nuanced across cultures and population subgroups. For example, many studies use gender-specific measures of binge drinking. The epidemiology of binge drinking likewise differs across cultures and population subgroups.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">School of Science and Technology, Singapore</span> Specialised independent school in Singapore

The School of Science and Technology, Singapore is a specialised independent secondary school in Singapore, offering a four-year Singapore-Cambridge GCE Ordinary Level (O-Level) Programme.

Tan Chin Hwee is a Singaporean businessman and professor. He currently serves as Chairman of the Energy Supply Resilience Advisory Panel within the Energy Market Authority (EMA). A Chartered Financial Analyst and Certified Public Accountant in Singapore and Australia, he previously worked in DBS Bank, Keppel Corporation, Amaranth Advisors, Apollo Global Management and Trafigura before joining the EMA.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">International Science Youth Forum @ Singapore</span>

The International Science Youth Forum (ISYF) is a science enrichment programme for students from all over the globe. It is hosted at Hwa Chong Institution (HCI), under the Students' Science Research Club (SSRC), and co-organised by Ministry of Education (Singapore), with the support of National Research Foundation, Singapore, Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), National University of Singapore (NUS), Nanyang Technological University (NTU), Singapore University of Technology and Design (SUTD) and Science Centre Singapore, bringing students from across Asia-Pacific together to network and dialogue, with Nobel laureates coming down to share their experiences in the scientific field.

The establishment of Singapore Centre for Chinese Language was announced by Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong on 6 September 2008, and was opened by then Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew on 17 November 2009. The Centre was established to position Singapore as a centre of excellence for the learning, teaching and educational research of the Chinese language in a bilingual context.

References

  1. ↑ Anti-binge drinking campaign: Get serious Archived 7 February 2009 at the Wayback Machine Asiaone News, 11 February 2008.
  2. ↑ "Young and Smashed". SoShiok.com. 4 June 2008.[ dead link ]
  3. ↑ "Survey shows 73% of young club-goers binge drink at least once a month". Channel NewsAsia. 16 October 2008.
  4. ↑ Binge drinking an "emerging issue in Singapore, says HPB, Channel NewsAsia, 7 December 2008.
  5. ↑ Moderate drinking keeps you sexy Marketing-Interactive, 11 January 2008.
  6. ↑ "Get Your Sexy Back is back". Youth.sg. 18 October 2008. Archived from the original on 1 September 2009. Retrieved 15 April 2009.
  7. ↑ Alcohol Advisory Council of New Zealand (ALAC)
  8. ↑ "Young Guns" Archived 22 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine , Today Newspaper, 9 February 2010
  9. ↑ Cheers! Drink moderately and Get Your Sexy Back!, Asiaone News, 19 December 2008.
  10. ↑ "Get Your Sexy Back, by drinking responsibly". OMY. 16 December 2009.
  11. ↑ "Drinking’s not Sexy" Archived 18 October 2008 at the Wayback Machine . TODAY, 18 October 2008.

Further reading

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.