The demon drink?

A recent report in The Guardian laid the blame for underage drinking firmly at the door of 'alcopops'. Phil Mellows investigates.

My mum was a teenage binge-drinker. She finally admitted it to me last week. "I started drinking when I was 14," she said. "I used to go to the pub with Rita and Lil and drink brown ale".

The names Rita and Lil, not to mention the reference to brown ale, should give you an idea how long ago this was. It was during the war. To avoid telling you my mother's age I won't tell you which war. But the fact that it was one that America was slow to join in tells you it was way back.

Moving up a generation, as underage drinkers ourselves my mates and I vigorously avoided places with a reputation for even younger clientele. We called them "nippers' pubs".

So is there anything new in "teenage binge drinking"? The usually sober Guardian seems to think so judging by the sensational headline splashed across one of its news pages in the run-up to Christmas.

"New wave of 'sophisticated' alcopops fuels teenage binge drinking" it read and named the guilty brands along with some serious-looking charts.

The report was hung on the release of Department of Health figures on young people and drinking, the broad results of which have been available since March 2002. And, like all statistics, it's the way you read them.

The Guardian quotes average alcohol consumption among 11 to 15-year-olds as rising from 5.3 units a week in 1990 to 9.8 a week in 2001. That sounds pretty shocking. But a closer look at the numbers shows consumption has declined from 10.4 units in 2000 and 9.9 in 1998.

The Guardian is particularly concerned about girls, but even their drinking has come down from 9.1 units to 8.9.

The percentage of 11 to 15-year-olds who had drunk alcohol in the previous week has crept up - to 26 per cent from 24 per cent in 2000 and 21 per cent in 1999. But this is still below the high of 27 per cent registered in 1996.

Hardly evidence for a new "epidemic of binge-drinking" diagnosed in the article by Andrew McNeill of the Institute of Alcohol Studies (IAS) who goes on to add, even more sensationally, that "by the time you're 15, getting slaughtered is a central part of your social activities".

This is the comment that seems to justify the headline, but what is the IAS? Its website makes great play of being independent of the drinks industry, which it certainly is - it's sponsored by a charity called the United Kingdom Temperance Alliance.

This, in turn, is part of the International Organisation of Good Templars (IOGT), among whose aims are to "promote a lifestyle free of alcohol". This does not mean sensible drinking or moderation but abstention. "Members of IOGT organisations choose to live free from such substances", it says.

The IOGT is linked to the Global Alcohol Policy Alliance. The main aim of this organisation is to challenge the drinks industry. It produces a magazine called The Globe which is edited by IAS director Derek Rutherford. Andrew McNeill sits on the editorial board.

No doubt along the way the IAS does some good work. But you can hardly say it doesn't have an axe to grind. As well as press releases headed "Young drinkers receive a death warning", it has attacked plans for 24-hour licensing and opposed drinks companies sponsoring the last World Cup.

This surely throws into question the objectivity of the Guardian's "health experts". But is there still a case to answer that "alcopops" - now referred to by the drinks industry variously as RTD (ready to drink) PPS (premium packaged spirits) or FAB (flavoured alcoholic beverages) - encourage young people to drink to excess?

Chris Searle, a director of Bacardi-Martini, which produces the market leading Bacardi Breezer range, points out that before RTDs young people managed to find other sweet, easy-to-drink alcoholic drinks.

First there was brown ale and port and lemon - which on a 50-50 mix produces a whopping ABV of about 20 per cent. Sweet cider and the spritzer followed, as well as the do-it-yourself mixed spirits on which many RTDs are based.

Even now, young people are more likely to drink cider and beer than RTDs.

"Any drink attracts underage drinkers," said Steve Perez, the man behind Vodka Kick. "The problem is the popular press does not understand the drinks market.

"It's very easy to blame manufacturers for underage drinking but the issue stems from culture. If young people were introduced to alcohol sensibly it would solve a lot of the problems."

Putting his money where his mouth is, Steve offers his 15-year-old nephews a bottle of VK when they visit his home - only one, mind.

The industry, urged along by The Portman Group, has made a lot of effort to make sure RTDs do not appeal directly to young people. The Portman Group has forced 65 offending products off the shelves in the past six years and recently extended its code of practice to cover sponsorships, websites and other promotional activities.

The first wave of "alcoholic lemonades", which created a similar media panic in the mid-1990s, have virtually disappeared. Hooper's Hooch, which was at the centre of the rumpus, was relaunched a couple of times to make it more "adult", losing, for instance, the original cartoon lemon and being renamed Vodka Hooch.

The major brands which have replaced it are acutely conscious of their responsibilities. Diageo, which markets Smirnoff Ice and Archers Aqua among others, has its own tougher code of practice:

• it will only place advertising in media or at events where a majority of the audience can reasonably be expected to be over 18 - the benchmark is 70 per cent
• people shown in ads must be, and look as if they are, over 25-years-old
• it will not use any image, symbol, music, cartoon character or person that appeals primarily to people who are underage.

"We believe advertising that depicts responsible drinking as a relaxed, sociable and enjoyable part of a life has a role to play in promoting a responsible approach to alcohol consumption," said media relations director Lindsey Sexton-Chadwick.

"It is essential, however, that our marketing depicts only moderate and responsible drinking," she continued. "We will not appear to condone or encourage excessive or irresponsible drinking or refer in a favourable manner to the effects of intoxication. We will not depict people drinking heavily or very rapidly, or imply that such behaviour is attractive or appropriate."

The Guardian does, however, make a strong point about the pricing of RTDs, finding them on sale in high street bars for as little as £1 a bottle which does little for the serious image that leading brands try to promote.

But the producers have little or no control over pricing - and operators are caught in the middle of a price war.

Beverage Brands, for instance, recommends a retail price of between £2.50 to £2.90 for its WKD but it can't stop licensees and pub chains from competing in a fierce market place.

"A lot of brands are unhappy at retailers using low-priced RTDs as traffic-builders," said Chris Searle. "We have pricing strategies at Bacardi-Martini but they can always source products indirectly and there's nothing you can do about it - it's called competition."

All this is not to condone underage drinking, of course. But if we are going to combat its worst excesses and show the pub industry in the best, most responsible light to the government while licensing reform is going through we must first recognise the realities.

Peer pressure and the anxieties of meeting the opposite sex will mean that, somehow, under-18s are going to get hold of drink. There are times when this becomes a problem, to society and to themselves.

In order to contain and deal with that we have to come to a broader and deeper understanding. Scapegoating doesn't help. If RTDs dis