A drinks industry initiative to change social attitudes to alcohol has pledged to deliver a “significant and sustained campaign” over the next five years.

The Project 10 group, which brings together on- and off-trade drinks manufacturers and retailers, was currently thrashing out details of the campaign to tackle the social acceptability of drunkenness, confirmed spokesman Bruce Ray, external affairs director for Bacardi-Brown-Forman.

Talks have been held with groups such as the Drinkaware Trust about the campaign, which Project 10 said would “work on an unprecedented scale to change people’s attitudes towards alcohol misuse”.

However, the group refused to confirm industry speculation that ad agency Abbott Mead Vickers BBDO had been approached to produce Project 10’s first above-the-line campaign. The agency worked on Diageo’s generic responsible drinking campaign.

Project 10 was formed last year specifically to work with Government on responsible drinking campaigns. The initiative was launched in response to suggestions made by Gordon Brown at a summit meeting with industry leaders in 2007. Representatives from Diageo, Scottish & Newcastle, Tesco and Sainsbury’s were among those who attended that meeting.

“Since then, leading companies across the drinks industry have come together to develop a proposal for an industry-wide social marketing campaign,” said Project 10 in a statement.

“Some of our leading marketing experts have developed a campaign concept that has already attracted in-principle support from companies across the industry, including leading producers, on-trade retailers and off-trade retailers.”

The Government confirmed this week that a proposed code of practice to crack down on irresponsible drinks promotions will cover the off-trade as well as pubs.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith told a Commons debate that “the code will catch irresponsible promotions wherever they are happening”.

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