London, July 18: It is enough to make whisky purists reach for the bottle. Drinks companies are sponsoring a semi-pornographic art exhibition and launching a range of whiskies in alcopop bottles in attempts to attract younger consumers and reverse a decline in sales.

Traditional malt distilleries have accused the companies of “dumbing down” whisky brands and resorting to “ridiculous gimmickry” to appeal to “trendier” consumers in their 20s and 30s.

An Easy Drinking Company’s alcopop Ian Macleod Distillers, which manufactures Glengoyne malt whisky, is sponsoring an art exhibition in Glasgow, entitled “Sex and the Truss” which runs until July 24. It features a selection of “highly-charged erotic art” by the painter Bill Blackwood, including images of semi-naked women in stilettos, basques and stockings.

Leonard Russell, the managing director of Ian Macleod Distillers, said that their sponsorship was intended “to shake off the old-fashioned image of Scotch whisky”.

He added: “The younger generations often turn to ‘white’ spirits and alcopops on a night out. This exhibition gives us the perfect opportunity to demonstrate the versatility of Glengoyne and show how it can be a refreshing base for cocktails.”

The Easy Drinking Company, founded last October and part-funded by the owners of the Famous Grouse whisky blend, has brought out three whiskies in alcopop bottles with simplified labels. They are called The Rich Spicy One, The Smokey Peaty One and The Smooth Sweeter One. Critics have already dubbed them “maltopops”.

Mark Geary, 33, a co-founder of the company, said: “We have had a wee bit of criticism from classic whisky writers who don’t quite get us and there has been a bit of tut-tutting and poo-pooing.

“Generally, though, we’ve been overwhelmed by support. Unfortunately lots of people can’t get into the fine whisky brands already on offer, so that’s why we’re producing something new.”

The initiatives are part of a concerted attempt to reverse the decline in Scotch whisky sales by challenging the drink’s “pipe and slippers” image.

Sales have dropped every year since 1997 and fell a further 1 per cent to 113.7 million bottles in Britain in 2003.

Traditionalists, however, are unimpressed. James Walker, the proprietor of Adelphi Distillery in Edinburgh that sells cask-strength single malts — that need diluting with water before drinking — called the marketing attempts “ridiculous gimmickry”.

He said: “I am certainly not a fan of marketing whisky like an alcopop. I would absolutely not consider any of these strategies for selling my whisky.

“It takes a while just to get your palate used to whisky — you can’t just pick it off a supermarket shelf and expect the youth market with undeveloped palates to understand it.”

Richard Patterson, the master blender of the Kyndal whisky group that makes Whyte & MacKay and has a 9 per cent share of the world Scotch whisky market, said that “awareness and appreciation” could not be achieved through fashionable marketing strategies.