As funny as it may initially appear, alcoholism in women is no joke. Over the past decade, many developed countries with a solid drinking culture, such as the U.K. for example, saw the number of women dying from alcohol abuse double. In the States, an estimated 4 million women drink in a way that severely threatens their health and safety. Whether we like it or not, heavy drinking is scientifically proven to be more harmful to women than to men, as our bodies seem to develop alcohol-related diseases more quickly and after drinking smaller amounts of alcohol than men.

You'd think that such compelling arguments - the list is in fact much longer, with breast cancer prominently featured among the major health risks to which women expose themselves through drinking even moderate amounts of alcohol - us ladies would be slightly more sensible and give up the drinking-till-we-puke routine completely. However, authorities around the world feel that they are not getting through to us and believe that young women easily discard health warnings since we all feel that old age is still a long way away. So rather than warning women about the dangers of cancer, London authorities decided to go the sneaky way and hit where it hurts the most: our looks.

As a result, a new poster campaign was launched in the British capital, warning women that drinking will take away their treasured good looks and make them... well, there's no other way to say this... ugly. The campaign comes with a very suggestive poster, featuring a woman with sagging and blotchy red skin and nose, captioned "if you drink like a man you might end up looking like one". Ouch! Now that sure hurts - but it's also true. Alcoholism is known to cause bad skin, premature aging and weight gain, so why not add a suggestive illustration of that particular phenomenon, to bring the point home, so to speak. Have a look and think about it - would such a poster really make you consider giving up drinking?