I just caught an item about this in the radio and it chimed with something I've been thinking about for a while:
www.scotsman.com/health/members-of-children-s-parliament-want-alcohol-to-be-made-less-visible-1-5006942
The Scottish government are concerned that the high visibility of alcohol is having a negative impact on children's lives. They questioned children about advertising and portrayal of alcohol etc but I think they've ignored a major trend that goes beyond the drinks industry itself, which is the way we're now associating alcohol with unrelated stuff. The Christmas crap is already sneaking into shops and alcohol gift sets aside, you're hard pressed to find a cosmetic bag, bubble bath or pair of pyjamas that isn't extolling the virtues of prosecco or gin (beer in the gents' case of course). Asda sell a teapot that says "warning: may contain gin" on it ffs. It's been like this for a year or two now and in some ways it's no different to everything in the shops suddenly being emblazoned with unicorns or pugs or doughnuts or whatever until the next trend comes along. But I think it's more damaging, particularly to kids, precisely because it's lumping booze in with unicorns and pugs and doughnuts.
And friends, I think we have to take some of the blame for this. Last mother's Day my 12 yo DD bought me a prosecco-themed gift set (it didn't have prosecco in it obvs!) and she was so pleased with herself because of course it was the perfect present for me, and I just wanted to weep. Because she regularly hears talking about prosecco, and gin, and cocktails with my friends, and she's picked up on the tone of fun and excitement of these conversations even if she doesn't see me actually see me drinking it that often. We seem to have adopted booze as a kind of identity marker that needs to be flagged beyond just drinking and enjoying it so it's not surprising that kids have picked up on it. My worry is that this will only add to the existing pressure on them to start drinking as they get older.
The Scottish government are discussing ways to reduce the visibility of alcohol itself but there's not much they can do about supermarkets and pound shops selling 5000 bits of tat proclaiming the bearer's love of gin. So it's really up to us to watch the our language and attitude to booze, particularly around children. And not to buy tote bags that say fucking prosecco on them.