Milk Link is predicting an outbreak of pester power after teaming up with BBC Worldwide to launch a strawberry milk drink featuring characters from hit children's TV show Charlie and Lola.

Called Charlie and Lola Pink Milk (rsp: £1.29), it will be the first drink product to be branded with the popular BAFTA-winning cartoon, which is the highest-rating programme on BBC children's TV channel CBeebies.

The milk will be targeted at two to eight-year-olds as an alternative to carbonated drinks and is made from extended shelf-life milk. It will be sold as part of Milk Link's portfolio of Moo-branded products.

Milk Link was excited to be taking a "premier young children's licence" such as Charlie and Lola into the dairy drinks market, said marketing director Hamish Renton. "We believe our strawberry-flavoured milk is a fantastic fit with the characters in the show," he added. "After all, as every fan of the show will know, 'Lola loves pink milk'!"

The success of the TV show meant the drink was likely to generate huge pester power with its target demographic, said Milk Link head of innovation Matt Richards. "It's not just 'oh, we've got Charlie and Lola and we've invented pink milk' pink milk is what Lola looks for in the cartoon to drink, so it actually has some direct relevance," he said.

One-litre cartons of Charlie and Lola Pink Milk will be rolled out to 200 Sainsbury's stores from 11 August, and will go into 370 Morrisons stores shortly afterwards. The launch will be supported by a six-figure marketing campaign that will include press, online and in-store activity.

Charlie and Lola's Pink Milk is the latest product to be added to the burgeoning portfolio of products Milk Link manufactures under licence, including Flora Pro-activ milk and flavoured milk drinks from Mars. Two weeks ago, The Grocer broke the news of Milk Link's plans to launch I Can't Believe It's Not Cheddar in January 2011, which it will manufacture under licence from Unilever.

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