Style-obsessed teenagers are the target of a new campaign by the Milk Development Council that will set out to show the white stuff can be just as good for their looks as for their bones.

The £3m Naturally Beautiful campaign will first air on Monday (May 15) on Channel 4, and is timed to coincide with the start of the latest series of Big Brother. It shows a woman pouring milk over herself in the style of a shampoo advert as well as other women walking down a catwalk.

Radio and press ads that take a tongue-in-cheek slant on the celebrity gossip magazine format by revealing that milk, cheese and yoghurt are the secrets to celebrities' looks also kick off this month. The adverts are a response to research by the MDC that found teenage girls were avoiding dairy products to copy the diets of celebrities such as Victoria Beckham and Madonna. According to the MDC, only a quarter of 11 to 16-year-old girls eat enough dairy products to provide the calcium needed to protect them from osteoporosis in later life.

Marketing manager Vicky Hathaway said the campaign would target impressionable teenagers who were obsessed with their looks but not their health. "The ads focus on the beautifying nutrients that can be found in milk, cheese and yoghurt," said Hathaway. "It's done in a fun way so girls don't feel we're lecturing them."

Topics