Will the new government advertising campaign stop binge drinking youth?

A young man who falls to his death after climbing scaffolding while on a drunken night out is the striking central image of a new hard-hitting government campaign that aims to curb the growing problem of binge-drinking youth.

The £4m campaign, which is set to hit TV screens on Monday night, is a joint effort by the Department of Health and the Home Office to try and encourage 18 to 24 year olds - and even slightly younger illegal drinkers - to be more responsible.

The facts make for sobering reading: 48% of 16 to 24 year old males and 39% of females drink above daily recommendations and 5.9m people go drinking to get drunk.

In advertising terms, alcohol (and, possibly soon junk food) seems to be rapidly becoming the new cigarettes.

Last month, the Advertising Standards Authority went after the advertising campaigns for alcopops Smirnoff Ice, owned by Diageo, and WKD for appealing to under 18 year olds.

Diageo was incensed and is apparently conducting its own investigation into the affair.

Still, the point is that the ASA went for the jugular and made a very public display of shaming the two brands following an investigation to make sure advertisers had adapted their campaigns to comply with tighter alcohol advertising rules.

Despite the new 'know your limits' campaign, created by WPP agency United London, £4m doesn't seem like nearly enough support to achieve the goal of "creating a culture where drinking responsibly is the norm".

Although perhaps Srabani Sen, chief executive of Alcohol Concern, is right when he says that the campaign at least "marks an important starting point in changing young people's attitudes to binge drinking"?