Prof Gerard Hastings OBE, of the Institute of Social Marketing at Stirling University, has issued a call for a ban on alcohol advertising.

The report has also questioned the existence of alcohol marketing watchdog The Portman Group, self funded by the alcohol industry, which has reacted angrily to the report’s recommendations.

Hastings and his team have analysed a sample of internal marketing documents from four alcohol producers and their communications agencies.

The documents were made available as part of the House of Commons Health Committee Alcohol Inquiry and included client briefs, media schedules, advertising budgets, and market research reports.

They also looked at four campaign themes which were banned by the advertising code of practice, as well as sponsorship and new media campaigns and also found that market research data on 15 and 16 year olds was used to guide the development of some campaigns, while some brands were identified as looking to recruit new drinkers and establish brand loyalty, naming Carling and WKD as examples.

References to encourage excessive drinking was also found, despite a ban being in place to promote increased consumption, while social success and boosted confidence was also inferred through alcohol consumption by some campaigns, despite also been banned under advertising codes.

It is also claimed that government in 2009-10 spend on alcohol education and information is £17.6m compared to the annual spend by the UK drinks industry of £600-800m for marketing.

As a result, Hastings has repeated his call for a ban on alcohol marketing to be introduced, similar to the one put in place in the UK against the advertising of tobacco.

“There is no question that society would benefit without the promotion of alcohol,“ Hastings told The Drum. “This isn’t about turning into a netherworld of prohibition and misery, this is a real sleight of hand that somehow getting blind drunk and throwing up or getting pregnant is having fun and enjoyable and is how we relax. That is nonsense. Alcohol can play an enjoyable and functional part in our lives, but not if we use it to drink alone.”

Hastings said that an outright ban would depend on how bad the situation got.

“A ban should be implemented now as there is an enormous problem to turn the tide back to a position where we are drinking more sensibly,” he continued.

“What has happened over the last few year, through a madness in marketing, is that pricing has been used to encourage excessive consumption, public development itself has been used to encourage this also. Look at all the products which have come onto the market in the last 20 years, alchopops, shooters, toffee vodka…if fifty years ago someone had suggested producing these products they would have been told they were insane. But it’s just gone through without so much as a blink. And on top of all of that you have a massive amount of alcohol marketing where in the UK it is estimated that there is between £600m to £800m spent promoting booze.”

Hastings continued to questioned the impartiality of The Portman Group and whether it was able to fully carry out its function as an industry watchdog.

“It is not independent,” stated Hastings.

“It should be completely taken out of the hands of anyone who has a vested interest in the decision that is being made whether it be an advertising agency or indeed media owners...It would be perfectly simple to set up a body to look after it who would look after it just as has been done with MP’s expenses.”

The Portman Group released a statement from chief executive, David Poley who defended its work.

Poley said: "We are proud of the regulatory system for alcohol in the UK which is admired across the world. Gerard Hastings trawled through thousands of pages of internal company marketing documents on behalf of the Health Committee. He failed to find any evidence of actual malpractice. He therefore resorts to slurs and innuendos. We wish Gerard Hastings would publish his criticisms in an advertisement. The ASA could then rightly ban it for being misleading."

Hastings reacted to the statement by telling The Drum: “The Portman Group is paid for by the drinks industry, it’s an advocate group for the drinks industry which is why its instinctual reaction to anything like this is just denial. If we are talking about regulation, an essential quality of regulation is independence.”

Another recommendation in the report is that aminimum price per unit of alcohol should be imposed by the Government. It recommended that the minimum price should be placed at 40p per unit in the belief that this would deter the abuse of alcohol if made less affordable.

“There is a lot of established evidence to say that if alcohol is cheap, people will drink more. That’s been proven as far as you can in social science, that is established. The Scottish National Party’s official policy has recommended it while the UK, the price of alcohol has tumbled down across the last 30 years,” explained Hastings.

He also described the argument that the industry brings in billions to UK industry as ; "a false economy” as he believes that raising the cost of alcohol would bring in more money to the industry while also saving on social ill costs such as crime, health problems, violence and sexual behaviour.

He added that he doesn’t believe that it is actually for the alcohol industry to solve the problem of marketing its own products, that these businesses are simply fulfilling responsibilities to shareholders.

“If they don’t do that they will get taken over…just like Cadbury’s. So how can we expect them to do that and realistically expect them to address a completely opposite agenda of public health  which is not their expertise and is logically impossible.”

The report was issued today by the British Medical Journal.