A new 99p spirit shot landing on university campuses across the UK has drawn sharp criticism from alcohol charities. They warn it is a textbook example of alcohol marketing to young people, dressed up as harmless nostalgia.

Sazerac, the company behind BuzzBallz ready-to-drink cocktails and Fireball Whisky, is behind the new product. The brand is promoting it through a van called the “99 Liquor Whip”, serving shots to students and pitching the experience as “unapologetically fun”. The van takes its cues directly from the classic British ice-cream van, right down to the name.

How Alcohol Marketing to Young People Really Works

The nostalgia framing has not fooled public health experts. Jem Roberts, head of external affairs at the Institute of Alcohol Studies, called it out directly. The launch “looks like a product entirely designed to appeal to children while hiding behind a thin nostalgia label,” he said.

“Sweet flavours, TikTok-style branding and even an ice-cream van, it’s hardly subtle,” Roberts added.

The UK already records some of the highest rates of heavy episodic drinking among young people in Europe. Overall youth drinking has fallen in recent years, yet binge drinking among those who do drink remains stubbornly high. Roberts is calling for stronger regulation. Industry rules already state that products should not particularly appeal to under-18s, but “examples like this keep appearing,” he said.

Cheap Alcohol Targeting Youth Raises Campus and Street Concerns

Joe Marley, executive director at Alcohol Change UK, pointed to a wider pattern. He said the group “has a track record of going further than others when creating and marketing strong alcohol that tastes like sweets for pocket money prices, using playful approaches, bright colours and cultural trends to embed alcohol in young people’s lives.”

The campaign does not stop at campus gates. Marley raised concerns about colourful advertisements at bus stops and on high streets, warning they risk reaching children far younger than the target audience.

Price matters too. A 99p shot is an easy sell to a student watching every penny. Research consistently shows that low price, combined with heavy promotion, shapes drinking habits and normalises consumption from an early age. Alcohol Change UK estimates that alcohol harm costs the NHS in England alone around £3.5 billion every year, a figure that reflects how deeply embedded problematic drinking has become.

“Evidence is clear that price, particularly during a cost-of-living crisis, paired with clever and unapologetic marketing has a big effect on drinking habits while shaping attitudes toward and normalising alcohol,” Marley said.

What Sazerac Says

Sazerac says it takes underage drinking concerns seriously. A spokesperson said all activity follows UK alcohol marketing, retail and age-verification standards. The company argues that price alone does not make a product appealing to minors. It points to “responsible marketing, clear adult targeting and robust retail compliance” as the key safeguards.

On the nostalgic branding, Sazerac says it reflects “well-established nostalgia trends commonly used to engage adult consumers, particularly those of legal drinking age who identify with 90s and early-2000s culture.”

Why Alcohol Marketing to Young People Still Needs Scrutiny

This campaign is not happening in isolation. Cheap alcohol targeting youth through shareable, social-media-friendly formats is a growing trend. When a shot costs less than a bus fare, comes served from a vehicle that looks like a childhood memory, and spreads across TikTok in tasting videos, the line between adult-oriented promotion and content that pulls in under-18s gets very blurry.

Both Alcohol Change UK and the Institute of Alcohol Studies want proper controls on how alcohol reaches young audiences in the UK. The self-regulatory framework, they argue, is not keeping up. Until it does, campaigns like this one will keep testing its limits.

Source: theguardian