AN eight-year-old east Durham girl has just been hailed the area's youngest advertising guru.

Shannen McLaren, a pupil at Murton Primary School, won the accolade after designing a poster for Goodyear, which raises awareness and funds for the RNLI and the Amateur Swimming Association.

The poster, which beat off competition from thousands of entries received from schools across the region, is now on display on the Goodyear website www.goodyear.co.uk and has also been placed on show in Murton Primary.

Shannen's entry will now go through to the national final to select the official poster for next year's National Wet Safety Week campaign.

It will be fixed on 48 billboards across the country.

Shannen was awarded a £20 book token for her efforts and said: "I'm really excited to have won and am looking forward to spending my voucher. It's amazing to think that my drawing could be on billboards all over the place by this time next year.''

James Bailey, from Goodyear, who headed the judging panel, said: "National Wet Safety Week helps children to understand the importance of being knowledgeable around the water, and we thought it was an ideal opportunity to use their ad designs for our latest tyre.

"We had loads of great entries from different schools, but Shannen's poster was chosen as the regional winner.''

He added: "With such good design skills, I'm sure she'll have a great career in advertising when she's older.''