Denham, who was speaking at an Alcohol Concern fringe meeting, said: ‘The message that the media is projecting to young people is that they should be getting drunk.’
He said weekend radio shows should stop featuring phone-ins about the previous night’s alcohol intake.
‘We can spend millions on advertising to address binge drinking, but that won’t work if we don’t tackle this media obsession,’ he said.
Alcohol Concern director of policy and PA Geethika Jayatilaka said ‘sensible drinking’ was ‘not attractive’ to young people; showing the embarrassing results of binge drinking would be more effective.
