UNDER-AGE drinkers will be confronted with the perils of binge drinking in a Federal Government ad campaign about to plant sobering messages in teen magazines, cinemas and toilet stalls across Australia.

The $20 million advertising blitz was launched by the Health Minister, Nicola Roxon, yesterday as part of a three-step bid to curb dangerous drinking as schoolies celebrations begin.

"These are hard-hitting ads. That's because we are dealing with a group of people who think they are bulletproof," Ms Roxon said.

From Sunday, audiences watching TV and videos online will see a camera flash as a drunk girl pulls off her pants and a boy does up his fly in an apparent blackmail attempt at a house party. In another, revellers roaming down a suburban road are hit by a car. The tagline for both is: "Don't turn a night out into a nightmare."

The ads target people aged 15 to 25 years who can be cynical about being told what to think.

"You can't con the market into being something it's not," the creative director of advertising agency M&C Saatchi in Sydney, Ben Welsh, said. "The attitude is: 'Tell me whatever it is and let me make up my own mind.' "

The executive officer of the Youth Action and Policy Association, Rey Reodica, said the ads had to conform more closely with young people's experiences to work. "I do question the effectiveness of shock tactics.

"Very few people will fall through a table," he said, referring to an ad where a woman in a party dress lies on the remnants of a coffee table with cuts to her face and arms. "It's not just about young people. Their approach to alcohol is learned behaviour."

In March, the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, said Australia was beset by a binge drinking epidemic. There was no harm in "scaring the living daylights out of young people".

The ads will also appear in buses, the music and street press and outside nightclubs. Those aimed at young women, the target of sugary "alcopop" drinks, will appear in Dolly , Cleo and Girlfriend .

The Public Health Association of Australia said the campaign would counteract the irreverent ads of the alcohol industry.

"It is time to respond with the other side of the story," the group's chief executive, Michael Moore, said.

The Government's attack on binge drinking also includes $14.4 million for sports and community groups to promote responsible drinking and $19.1 million for early intervention programs.