North East Kids Familiar With Booze Branding
Primary school children are more familiar with alcohol brands than popular biscuit, crisp and ice cream brands, according to research.
Primary school children are more familiar with alcohol brands than popular biscuit, crisp and ice cream brands, according to research.
The North East Alcohol Office, Balance have worked with Alcohol Concern on the study.
They are now calling for more regulation around the advertising of alcohol.
They found 98% or 10 and 11-year-old in the North East could recognise the Foster’s Lager advertising.
That compares to 85% who were familiar with McVities.
Almost half (44%) of children identified Carlsberg as sponsors of the England football team and more than half correctly linked Chang with Everton Football Club (54%).
Colin Shevills, Director of Balance, said: “It’s no surprise that school children are so familiar with alcohol brands when the alcohol industry spends around £800 million a year on marketing its products.
“Our young people are bombarded with this excessive marketing when they turn on the TV, go to the cinema, use social media and watch their favourite sports teams - it’s not right. Evidence shows that exposure to alcohol promotion in the UK normalises drinking for young people and encourages them to drink at younger ages and in greater quantities.
“We need to see stricter regulations put in place to protect our children from this level of exposure to alcohol. The first step in a phased approach should see a ban on TV alcohol advertising before the 9pm watershed to reduce the number of children in the viewing audience.
“Support for a ban of this kind is at an all-time high here in the North East with almost three in four people backing the measure in a recent survey.”