The House of Commons health select committee has called for all alcohol advertising to be banned before the 9pm television watershed to benefit the public health.

A report compiled by the committee argued that current alcohol advertising regulation does not go far enough, with problems primarily due to the quantity of ads being allowed rather than their actual content.

The MPs even suggested that 20% of all TV ads run by alcohol firms should be dedicated to delivering health messages to increase awareness about the problems of heavy drinking.

They further want alcohol ads to be banned from all films with under-18 ratings and removed from social networking sites, which are becoming emerging platforms for the promotional material.

As sporting events are often used to carry alcohol sponsorship, the MPs want new rules to specify that no event should be sponsored "if more than 10% of those attending are under 18 years of age".

"The current system of controls on alcohol advertising and promotion is failing the young people it is intended to protect," said the report.

"The problem is more the quantity of advertising and promotion than its content. This has led public health experts to call for a ban. It is clear that both the procedures and the scope need to be strengthened."

The report also called for a major revamp of the regulation framework for alcohol marketing, which is currently conducted by the Advertising Standards Authority and the industry-funded Portman Group.

However, ASA chief executive Guy Parker told the committee that its guidelines for alcohol advertising are robust and that there is not a widespread problem among viewers.

"We received just short of 400 complaints about advertising last year. Those complaints were not just about alleged problems under the specific and strict alcohol rules; most were complaints that ads were misleading or offensive under the general rules in the codes," he said.

"Of those 400 complaints 200 related to alcohol ads or campaigns. Those 200 cases represent about 1% of the total and equate almost perfectly with the proportion spent on alcohol ads."