A 2011 study showed that more than a quarter of 17-year-olds had been drunk at least three times in the last year, rising by more than 2 percent in three years.

“Le binge drinking”, as the phenomenon is known in France, has prompted some schools to copy a US programme that aims to encourage children to resist the temptation of alcohol.

Le Parisien newspaper reported on Thursday that a school in the central Corrèze region of France is piloting a programme that uses role play to help young people work out how they can reject peer pressure.

A 2006 study found that 59 percent of 11-year-olds had already drunk alcohol, rising to 72 percent for 13-year-olds and 84 percent for 15-year-olds.

The government has also commissioned a series of advertisements to be played on national TV.

Youth minister Jeannette Bougrab challenged a cinema school to come up with a series of advertisements, which will be shown in April.

In one spot, a group of young people are shown drinking while one attempts a rousing speech. 

He seems to lose his way and eventually falls away while the other teenagers are shown lying slumped around him. 

“To be a rebel you have to be able to stand up,” says the endline.

Binge drinking became a major issue with the rise of “apéro géants”. 

Translated as “giant aperitifs”, these gatherings attracted thousands of mostly young people to indulge in outdoor drinking.

Many ended in fights, hospitalisations and scenes of unconscious drinkers, scenes that have tended to be very unusual in France.

Le spot de l’EICAR contre le blinge drinking par la-croix