Children aged 10 more familiar with alcohol than food adverts says drink campaign

Research involving more than 400 children aged 10 and 11 found 79 per cent correctly recognised Carlsberg as an alcoholic drink.

This was higher than the proportion recognising Ben and Jerry’s as a brand of ice cream (74 per cent) and Mr Kipling cakes as a food (41 per cent).

Some 79 per cent of those survey also recognised the logo for Smirnoff vodka as an alcohol drink, with awareness highest among those pupils who had tried alcohol.

The study, for Alcohol Concern, involved showing the brand names and logos of common alcohol products, as well as images from TV alcohol advertisements.

Youngsters were also shown brand images, logos and TV adverts for popular non-alcoholic products such as soft drinks and breakfast cereals.

Alcohol Concern wants greater regulation of broadcast alcohol advertising, as well as reviewing alcohol industry sponsorship of cultural and sporting events.

Mark Leyshon, from the charity, said: “It’s clear that more effective controls are needed to ensure alcohol marketing messages only reach adult audiences, and are not attractive to children.”

A spokesman for the Department for Culture Media and Sport emphasised that both European law and the UK Broadcasting Code set out strict criteria which mean that broadcast advertising for alcoholic drinks could not be targeted at young people, or encourage “immoderate consumption.”

A spokesman for the drinks industry denied there was any link between advertising and alcohol use, pointing out a significant downward trend in the number of children trying alcohol.