THE Milk Development Council is to launch a £3m campaign to persuade teenage girls of benefits of milk, cheese and yoghurt.

The European Commission has given £1.5m towards the two-year project, which begins in March and includes cinema, radio and magazine advertising as well as sampling, on-line media and public relations activities.

Vicky Hathaway, marketing manager with MDC, said several British dairies and co-ops were backing the campaign by providing products to be sampled by girls and their mothers.

"The Dairy Council will provide the essential nutritional information which will underpin the campaign," she said.

"This will be the first industry-wide campaign since The White Stuff but, in recognition of how the market has developed in recent years, it's heavily targeted and covers the three main dairy products rather than just milk," she said.

Targeting teenage girls was prompted by an MDC survey last year which found that almost 75pc of females aged from ten-20 were skimping on dairy products in their diet and were unlikely to take in enough calcium to protect against osteoporosis in later life.

Lack of knowledge among girls and their mothers was largely to blame for low dairy consumption - many were unaware of the optimum daily intake levels, or had a misconception that all dairy products contained high levels of fat.

MDC challenged a number of agencies to come up with compelling campaigns to appeal to both girls and their mothers.

Award-winning marketing agency "iris" was selected and will use the theme of natural beauty, targeting girls with messages about the beauty benefits delivered by milk and dairy products, while educating mothers about their daughters' bone health.

"We have to communicate in a way that's relevant and fits in with the lifestyle of today's teenagers," said Ms Hathaway, "so there will be a focus on looking and feeling good, but we also need to address misconceptions head on, and that will be a feature of the campaign: communicating facts about dairy products."

The teenage girls campaign will join a number of initiatives taking place in the early months of this year under the guidance of recently appointed marketing director, Liz Broadbent.