The Hot Seat: Phil and Brett, Founders of Dry July

21 June 2010

Two years ago, you guys gave up alcohol for a whole month. Why the hell did you decide to do that?
Phil: That’s a good point, why did we? In 2007, we had both been drinking too much for too long and realised it was taking a bit of a toll on our health and we were sick of feeling hung over all the time.
Brett: A few mates decided to take July off the booze and see how much better we would feel having an alcohol-free month.

What’s the idea behind Dry July? Why did you decide to invent Dry July?
Brett: It’s a very simple concept really - give up the booze for July and get your friends, family and work colleagues to sponsor you! Couldn’t be simpler... giving up booze for one month can’t be that hard... can it?
Phil: Because of the peer pressure we were exposed to during our first month-long abstinence, we really thought we should put the challenge out to everyone and raise some money for a good cause in the process.

Last year’s Dry July exploded from just you two to over a thousand people. How did that happen?
Brett: Our initial target for Dry July was getting 10 mates involved and raising $3000 for the local hospital. At the end of Dry July 2009, we had over 1000 participants and raised over $250,000. We were blown away by the support we got from people all over Australia so we decided to set ourselves up as a stand-alone charity and take the concept national!

So how does Dry July work?
Phil: Dry July is run as an online community at dryjuly. com. Once signed up as a participant, you can encourage your friends and family to sponsor you by making a donation.
Brett: The main thing about Dry July is that it is a challenge. It’s a light-hearted approach to raising money for a serious cause. We’re not trying to create a nation of tee-totallers here. We think people are intelligent enough to become more self-aware of how much they normally drink whilst taking part in Dry July and perhaps enter August with a little more restraint. Perhaps.

Why should we do Dry July?
Phil: There are a number of good reasons to take part in Dry July. Obviously the cause - raising money to help improve the lives of adults living with cancer. The second reason is to challenge yourself to break a habit. You’ll find you feel a lot better, sleep a lot better, lose weight and have a lot more money left in your wallet at the end of the week. We’ve had a lot of positive feedback from participants about how much better they have felt after doing Dry July. We even had our first Dry July baby conceived during Dry July 2009.

Who’s leading the charge when it comes to raising donations?
Brett: [702 ABC host] Adam Spencer said last year that “you don’t win Dry July in June.” I think that’s good advice so we’re not going to speculate on this year’s winner. In saying that, Adam thought he had won last year but ABC’s Rebecca Levingston pipped him to the post!

Which celeb ambassador’s going to do the best? I see Triple J’s Zan Rowe is doing pretty well...
Phil: Zan is fantastic and is currently kicking Lindsay McDougall’s arse! Although ABC local radio presenters have such an amazingly loyal following, we’ve been blown away by the generosity of ABC listeners... Your website shows that some of your celebrity ambassadors haven’t raised a cent.

Are you going to kick their arse?
Brett: We’ve added a ‘Hall of Fame’ page this year.... Hoping we won’t need to create the ‘Hall of Shame’ page too!