Campaign launched to tackle teenage binge drinking
The drinks industry, in a bid to tackle teenage binge drinking, is to run a series of commercial adverts in cinemas, depicting the unpleasant side effects of alcohol.
One ad will show a young woman with her head down the toilet after drinking too much.
Another ad will show an inebriated young man trying to get his trousers down as he sits on the toilet.
The Portman Group, the industry’s watchdog, is backing the ads and is targeting 18 to 24-year-olds.
The ads are due to appear before Quentin Tarantino’s latest blockbuster, Kill Bill.
Jean Coussins, CEO of The Portman Group, said: “We know that around one million 18 to 24-year-olds are drinking to get drunk every week and, while the antics in the ads are funny, there’s a serious message behind them.
“You can lose everything from your mobile phone to your dignity when you get drunk.”
The move comes as scientists claim to have found a link between binge drinking among teenagers and stunted growth.
The US study, led by Dr Douglas Matthews from the University of Memphis, found that tests on adolescent rats demonstrated that high doses of alcohol impaired growth and altered brain function.
Dr Matthews said. “These findings suggest adolescence is a unique developmental period where exposure to high alcohol levels can produce changes in biological functions that might have long-lasting implications.”
Binge drinking was defined as having five or more drinks at one time.
The findings were reported in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
