ASA Regulations – Testing the limits

In the UK a beer ad is pulled for depicting a smartly dressed man with a ram’s head. While in the US a beer label depicting an orgy is considered “cutting-edge artwork”. Clinton Cawood investigates

The Advertising Standards Authority’s grace period for tougher rules regarding alcohol advertising in the UK ended last September. Then at the end of 2005 the European Commission released a green paper about obesity, specifically mentioning the advertising of soft drinks to children and suggesting regulation. Meanwhile various US states passed laws throughout last year to limit soft-drink sales and marketing in schools.

At the start of this year a medical paper was published claiming that alcohol advertising contributed to increased drinking among younger consumers. So the signs were there: 2006 was not going to be an easy year for drinks advertising.

The ASA rang in the new year by banning two posters for Young’s bitter, upholding complaints that the adverts associated the beer with social and sexual success. The “This is a Ram’s World“ campaign, featuring a well-dressed man with a ram’s head, was originally launched in 2004 and the posters were found to be acceptable in terms of the regulations at the time, but were considered in breach of the new, stricter guidelines.
Young’s argued that the Baphomet-like character was not intended to represent its target audience, that the unreal images would be interpreted as “preposterous” by viewers, that the ram image had been used by the brewery for over 150 years, and besides, the posters did not show the consumption of alcohol.

But the ASA ruled that one poster linked the image of an alcohol brand with seduction, and the other linked it to social success, noting “the masculinity of the ‘ram’ and the aspirational nature of the scenes depicted”.

Clamping down
The new alcohol advertising regulations were developed after the announcement of the UK government’s Alcohol Harm Reduction Strategy in March 2004. In addition to addressing  the issues of alcohol-related health disorders and social problems associated with alcohol, the strategy document expressed an intention to “clamp down on irresponsible promotions by the industry”. The responsibility for the new regulations was placed with Ofcom, which implemented them at the beginning of last year.

Tighter regulations also included a rule about the appeal of alcohol advertising to under-18s, an issue that has been attracting much attention. In January the US medical journal Archives of Pediatrics and Adolescent Medicine published the findings of new research which found that for each additional drinks advert that youths see, their alcohol consumption increases by 1%. The research has been criticised on a number of grounds, primarily on the basis that it used a system of self-reporting, conducted over the phone, to gather data. Despite this, it joins a significant body of research about the effect of alcohol advertising on youth.

Another paper was released by the ASA at the end of last year about investigations into the likelihood of the new rules succeeding in reducing the appeal of alcohol adverts to under-18s. This research will be followed by a comparative study after two years of the new regulation being in place.

The report is inconclusive, explaining that there are difficulties in assessing the appeal of advertising, and that “every advertisement will need to be evaluated carefully and in its own right following the advertising rule changes.”

But the report does acknowledge that other factors, “such as family background, peer pressure and the wider culture”, also have an influence on alcohol consumption.

Soft sell
Young people are apparently also at risk from soft drinks marketing. Throughout last year there were attempts to pass a “junk-food bill”, both in the US and the UK, which would limit the marketing and availability of snacks and soft drinks in schools. This is a result of a growing “obesity epidemic”, as the European Commission refers to it in a green paper published at the end of 2005. In this paper, advertising and marketing are listed as a primary “area for action”, and it suggests self-regulation as an option for marketers.

Self-regulation is exactly the route soft-drink producers chose to take. In January, The Union of European Beverages Associations (UNESDA) agreed to a ban on all advertising to children under 12. There is pressure on this initiative, as the public consultation about the green paper on obesity ends in mid-March, and it specifically questions the adequacy of voluntary codes. If proved ineffective, the introduction of legislature could become more likely.

Another body that is increasing its emphasis on self-regulation is the US Beer Institute. It recently announced plans for an independent advert-review panel for US beer industry advertising. The panel will review complaints about breaches of the institute’s detailed advertising and marketing code. The code was in place before this, but the panel will address issues that were inadequately responded to by advertisers.

But the fate of drinks advertising is not all bleak. The ASA recently ruled in favour of both Carlsberg and Wychwood Breweries about adverts that complainants believed were in breach of the advertising code. The Carlsberg advert was believed to have possible appeal to children, as well as linking alcohol with daring behaviour. The complaint about Wychwood’s advert was that it was “aggressive and offensive”, but the ASA disagreed.

Bawdy brew
In Pennsylvania, in the US, some distributors have taken a different approach in dealing with beer marketing they find “obscene”. Offended distributors of Legacy Brewing Co’s Hedonism Ale have either refused to sell the beer, or have covered the packaging with brown paper. The microbrewery, which held a competition to create the image on the packaging, believes it to be “cutting-edge artwork”. Hedonism Ale, with or without censoring brown paper, is still being stocked by over 100 distributors, and is apparently continuing to sell well.

In general, beverage advertisers are going to have to be more careful about who they appeal to, and what their advertising encourages, implies or suggests. For the drinks trade at least, it seems that the days of “sex sells” are in the past.

db  March 2006