The NSW government hopes a new $1 million anti-binge drinking campaign will deter risky drinking behaviour that kills more than 200 young people each year.
The "What Are You Doing To Yourself?" campaign is aimed at 16 to 20-year-olds and features ads which will run in the media, on buses and on postcards in cafes and pub bathrooms.
The ads depict young people in social environments and reflect how getting drunk can change their personality and behaviour.
One image shows a young woman driving a car while her eyes are covered by the hands of a drunken version of herself.
NSW Health Minister John Della Bosca said 264 Australians aged between 15 and 24 died each year as a result of risky alcohol consumption.
"That loss of life alone can result from just one episode of binge drinking," he said at Monday's launch.
"If an illicit drug was causing a death rate that high as a national toll we would be, I think, just absolutely flabbergasted."
He said figures from NSW Health showed the biggest increase in alcohol-related emergency department admissions since 2000 was among 18 to 24-year-olds - up 130 per cent.
"We have to accept that some of the practices that have grown up over a long history are actually not appropriate for individuals and not good for our society as a whole," he said.
Mr Della Bosca said there needed to be a public debate on the regulation of alcohol advertising.
"I think that needs to be a no holds barred argument about the influence of corporate alcohol advertising on culture, particularly young people's culture," he said.
The campaign is jointly funded by the government, which has committed $700,000 to the project, and by DrinkWise, a not-for-profit research organisation.
DrinkWise representative and dual Olympic swimming medallist Geoff Huegill helped launch the campaign, saying he had made mistakes in the past but his goal to compete at the 2012 Olympics now outweighed excessive drinking.
"The campaign is about longevity so we're changing the minds of our younger generations to realise it's not socially responsible to be out there binge drinking and carrying on like a goose," he said.
The campaign launch followed revelations of a new beverage aimed at younger drinkers that is designed to bypass the federal government's alcopop laws, which resulted in an increase in tax on pre-mixed drinks.
Looking like a vodka mixer, the Smirnoff Platinum drink contains six per cent alcohol, and is actually a mutant beer.
Mr Della Bosca said tax compliance came under federal jurisdiction but indicated he would talk to federal Health Minister Nicola Roxon about the issue.
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