Let There Be Beer ads cleared by ASA

An advertising campaign by the Coalition of UK Brewers has been cleared of breaching the UK advertising code, by the Advertising Standards Authority.

The campaign was investigated after viewers complained that it was confusingly similar to the Sunday morning cookery programme that Lovejoy presents on Channel 4. Two extended adverts for the campaign were screened during a break in Lovejoy’s Sunday Brunch programme.

Four complainants said that the adverts were not clearly identifiable as such because they appeared during a programme about food and drink which was also presented by Lovejoy.

The Coalition of UK Brewers argued that Sunday Brunch was a live studio-based show and all cooking on the show took place in a kitchen and not on location.

The coalition added that Sunday Brunch had never included taped inserts of cookery or featured a pre-recorded report.

The broadcast clearance body Clearcast agreed that the adverts did not look or sound like Sunday Brunch.

The ASA said: “While we appreciated that the ad, like the programme, was all about food and drink, we considered that unlike Sunday Brunch, all the action took place on location, there was regular use of background music, and the ads were clearly not filmed live.

“We therefore deemed the content and style of the ads sufficiently different from that of the programme for viewers to be able to distinguish between them.

“Because we considered that the ads were clearly identifiable as advertising material, we concluded that the ads did not breach the code.”