The number of alcohol advertisements on television has increased and some of them make drinking attractive to young people, a report has found.

The findings, which may worry those concerned about youth binge drinking, found that just over a third of children and young adults questioned thought adverts made alcohol look appealing — up from 25 per cent in 2005.

Earlier in the week Gordon Brown said that he would meet the retail industry to talk about the “dangers” of selling and marketing alcohol to youngsters. The Prime Minister told MPs at Question Time that there was a need to take action to tackle antisocial behaviour in areas where youngsters gather to drink.

Young people’s ability to remember alcohol adverts unprompted has dropped from an average 3.95 adverts to 3.31 in the past two years. Cider was the only type of drink to experience an increase, with the volume of respondents who remembered a cider advert unprompted trebling to 19 per cent over the same period.

Police and health workers will see this particular finding as a concern, considering that other research published this week found that cheap alcohol such as cider is fuelling drunkenness and violence in young people.

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