'Illicit' ice cream irks activists

PHANTOM21 · #1 04-05-04, 02:16 PM

The best thing to come out of Australia since the shot of Linda Kowzlowski's *ss!

SYDNEY, Australia (Reuters) -- A new vodka-flavored ice cream launched in Australia has provoked an outcry from groups worried it would give children a taste for alcohol.

The booze-flavored Illicit Vodka Cranberry Magnum ice creams hit the shelves just months after biscuit-maker Arnott's new Tia Maria Tim Tams and Kahlua Slices prompted fears that the liquor-laced biscuits would encourage children to drink.

"These products normalise alcohol and suggest to people that they ought to be thinking about alcohol just about every hour of the day," said Geoff Munro, Community Alcohol Action Network director.

"It introduces children to the taste of alcohol at potentially a very early age and I think that should be avoided," he told Australian Associated Press.

Streets, which makes the Magnums now on sale in Victoria state as part of its "vice-cream" range, said the ice creams contained only vodka flavoring and no alcohol.

The firm's marketing general manager David McNeil told the Herald Sun newspaper the ice creams were promoted only to adults. He added that rum and raisin has been a popular ice cream flavor for 30 years.