Lately, something of a phenomenon has seized the drinks industry. If the deluge of both niche and mainstream press coverage is anything to go by, alcohol-free alcohol is the new drink on everyone’s lips..... 

As Alcohol Healthwatch Executive Director Dr Nicki Jackson pointed out, the identical branding of both alcoholic and alcohol-free beers raises concerns that such exposure to children would lead to an ‘earlier onset of drinking and heavier drinking in young people’. Dr Jackson’s concerns are worthy of research into the nature of such an association. Until then, a country that wishes to halt this morally irresponsible marketing practice could always forbid the promotion of any products ‘carrying the same brand or distinctive mark as beverages containing more than 2.5% alcohol by volume’, like Chapter 9 of Norway’s 1989 Alcohol Act. Either way, countries that wait for the drinks manufacturers to do the right thing risk slipping into a marketing environment so toxic that even an alcohol-free childhood is not free from the influence of alcohol.