Newcastle-upon-wine
80% of Geordie Shore ‘is boozing’
GEORDIE Shore? It’s more like Geordie pour-me-another as booze features in eight in 10 scenes of the MTV show, experts claim.
The Newcastle-based MTV reality series is like “one long advert for drinking”, researchers said.
They called for measures to protect youngsters watching Chloe Ferry, Sam Gowland and pals out on the Toon.
Some 78% of scenes involved alcohol content, found a study of 10 episodes from Season 11 of the show – now on its 16th series.
Various alcohol brands featured in 23% of all scenes – with vodka brand Smirnoff in 43% of these. Over 60% of brand appearances were in episodes classified suitable for under-18s when released on DVD, the report claimed.
Lead researcher Dr Jo Cranwell of the University of Bath said: “We expected alcohol content but not at such high levels, or the prominence of particular brands.” Prof John Britton of the University of Nottingham said: “It represents one long advert for drinking for a teen and young adult audience.”
They want a review of age classification for the show. But MTV reportedly said the series goes out post-watershed, has an average viewer age of 25 and no brand sponsorships or product placement deals with booze brands.
Smirnoff said it follows strict codes on responsible marketing, adding: “Product placement of alcohol brands is not allowed in the UK and we do not have a relationship with this show.”