”What you’re about to see just might be the creepiest and most terrifying public service announcement anywhere in the world right now,” is how CNN leads into an anti-drinking ad by Finnish NGO Fragile Childhood and the A-Clinic Foundation, which works with addiction.
Alcoholic adults appear in the guise of monsters in the horror-themed video to show how children view their parents when they drink too much.
CNN asked Teuvo Peltoniemi, a former spokesman for the A-Clinic Foundation, to shed light on why alcoholism is the leading cause of death for certain age groups in Finland.
Peltoniemi chalked the problem up to Finns’ heavy drinking, saying that Finns consume slightly less alcohol per capita than Americans, but the difference is that Finns binge drink.
“Apart from being detrimental to health, it also causes social harm. This is the case in families where the parents drink too much and cause their children to suffer,” he said.
Society too tolerant?
Anu Pärssinen from the Finnish Central Association for Mental Health says the video offers an accurate portrayal of children's emotions when confronted with inebriated parents.
"Adults who've grown up in alcoholic families say the clip captures the fear and terror children feel when familiar adults turn into other people," she said.
Finns have a very tolerant attitude towards intoxication that downplays how a drunk mother or father affects children, according to Pärssinen.
Over a quarter of 12–18 year-olds said they had suffered from their parents’ drinking in a study by the A-Clinic Foundation last year.