About as Effective as DARE
I took a stroll down memory lane and watched a clip from the mid '90s afternoon television show Tiny Toons, in which, Hampton (Pig), Buster (Bunny), and Plucky (Duck) steal a "cold one" out of ma and pa's fridge.
"Buster, this isn't like you," Hampton says (without a trace of Porky's un-PC stutter). A sly Buster responds, "I know, but in this episode we're showing the evils of alcohol."
The three go on to split the bottle. And then they transform from cute little cartoon kids into greasy, dirty winos, steal a police car, drive off a cliff, and ascend into Heaven to be seated at the right hand of the teetotaling god that let this episode happen. A better warning against the evils of alcohol would've featured something more palpable, like a drunk Bugs Bunny beating a terrified Buster with a sand-packed garden hose.
If only I'd been born a decade earlier, I could've watched (and maybe been more moved by) this Thundercats alcohol PSA.
Radley Balko wrote about lowering the drinking age here.
Hat tip to Schindel at TFS blog.