Amsterdam has launched a hard-hitting advertising campaign telling young British men looking for sex, drugs and booze-filled visits to stay away.

The online ‘Stay Away’ campaign will pop up when people in the UK search for terms such as ‘stag party Amsterdam’, ‘pub crawl Amsterdam’ or ‘cheap hotel Amsterdam’.

They’ll see images illustrating the risks of excessive partying, as well as a video showing a young British man being arrested, fingerprinted and thrown in a cell.

The campaign, created by Amsterdam City Council, is targeted at British men aged between 18 and 35 in a bid to crack down on boozy, drug-fuelled visits and anti-social behaviour.

Running alongside the Stay Away adverts is a campaign called ‘How to Amsterdam’, which aims to promote good manners in the city.

Deputy Mayor Sofian Mbarki said: “Visitors are still welcome, but not if they misbehave and cause nuisance. As a city, we are saying: we’d rather not have this, so stay away.”

Amsterdam City Council said: “The campaign will commence in Great Britain, aimed at males in the age category of 18 to 35 years.

“This online discouragement campaign is aimed at nuisance tourists who want to visit Amsterdam to ‘go wild’, with all the ensuing consequences.”

It will be expanded to ‘potential nuisance-causing visitors from the Netherlands and other EU-countries’ in the coming year, the council said. 

You can see the video here.