Jack Frost Pop

I took a stroll down Barrow's Dalton road this week, and I have to admit to being the usual downtrodden Barrovian male standing outside the shops whilst the missus goes inside for seemingly days at a time. After getting fed - up of dodging dive bombing pigeons and ould lasses trying to lame me with wheeled shopping trolleys (why do they always have a tartan pattern eh?) I was tempted by the bargain basement style of shop which has recently opened, and entered for a browse. A huge display of brightly coloured bottles caught my eye and I homed in for a closer look presuming that it was a soft drink of some kind. But no it turned out to be 2.5 litres that’s 5.283 pints of strong white cider for less than £2.50p. Unbelievable that’s less than 50p a pint, that works out cheaper than some leading brand soft drinks. And at 7.5 percent alcohol, getting steaming drunk for less than £2. 50p would be child’s play. But looking at the packaging and advertising logos it’s hard not to get the impression that that’s the market the stuff is aimed at.

When I got home I went online and did a search for the brand name and was shocked to see what appears to be spoof profiles’ advertising the stuff on the social networking site Bebo. This site is mainly used by school kids, and going by the language and style of the pages this is just the target audience they are aiming for. This just seems to be a cheap cynical way of getting round the ban on advertising alcohol to kids. Let’s hope a stop is soon put to this blatant glamorising of cheap booze to children. Check out the pages here and here see what you think.