Craft brewery brand Brew York has had a Twitter ad banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for encouraging consumers to drink at breakfast and for making health claims.
The ad for the brand’s ‘Juice’ beer, made in collaboration with Vault City Brewery, enticed viewers to “get those 5-a-day in and start your day off right”. The product advertised was also the second beer in a ‘Breakfast Club Pack’ and featured a shot of a table arrangement with mango, a can of the beer, and smoothie poured from a blender into a Brew York branded glass.
A complainant challenged whether the ‘five-a-day’ copy was a health claim that was not permitted for alcoholic drinks, and also questioned whether the ad encouraged drinking at breakfast and “irresponsibly condoned and encouraged unwise styles of drinking or excessive drinking”.
Brew York responded to the claims by stating that the beer was part of its ‘Breakfast Club’ range that included several other beers inspired by flavours commonly associated with breakfast. It also said that taking ‘flavour inspiration’ from breakfast items did not go so far as to encourage drinking at breakfast.
With regards to the ‘get those five-a-day in’ phrase, the craft brand said that it ‘intended’ to be a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ reference to the advertised beer’s fruity flavour and high fruit content.
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Despite Brew York’s willingness to delete the tweet, the advertising watchdog affirmed that advertising codes require that “marketing communications contain nothing that is likely to lead people to adopt styles of drinking that are unwise.”
The Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code also states that alcohol ads cannot make any health, fitness or weight-control claims.
The ASA added: “Alcoholic drinks did not count towards a person’s ‘5 a day’, and the claim “get those 5-a-day in” on its own would therefore be misleading.”
“The ad must not appear again in its current form. We told Brew York and Vault City Brewing to ensure that their future ads were socially responsible and did not condone or encourage unwise styles of drinking, such as drinking at breakfast. We also told them not to make health claims about alcoholic drinks.”
