Launched in Japan 2 years ago, KidsBeer has become quite popular, selling 75,000 bottles a month and is available at more than 150 restaurants and supermarkets across Japan. Now, this cola-flavored, non-alcoholic kiddie beer is set to launch in Europe with Britain being it’s first stop. Already advocacy groups are slamming the product, and chances are very likely that it will never see the light of day here in the States.

The slogan for KidsBeer is “even kids cannot stand life unless they have a drink.” Ads for the product continue with the drink dependency thing, showing a kid crying after failing a math test, but joyous after he sits down for a “drink.” Wow. I didn’t know how rough kids have it these days.

Tomomasu, the company that makes KidsBeer says the product is innocently trying to give kids a sense of maturity. There are plenty of other ways to accomplish this rather than send the message that a mock alcoholic beverage will relieve all their problems. This will only get kids to drink the real stuff a lot faster, not to mention abusing it. Let’s come up with a new idea – let kids be kids.