ASA Adjudication on Virgin Wines

Ad

An e-mail, from Virgin Wines, had the subject heading “Your £20 Virgin Wines Voucher - a 'thank you' from The Trainline”. Text stated “You recently booked your tickets with The Trainline, and, as a 'thank you' they've asked us to send you a little something. So here it is - a £20 voucher to spend on wine. Use it to help you get through Christmas with the in-laws, treat someone you love, or share it with friends. Whatever you do, make sure you enjoy yourself, with The Trainline's compliments”.

Issue

The complainant, who was under 18 years of age, challenged whether:

1. the ad had been properly targeted and whether it was irresponsible, because it had been sent to under 18s and

2. the claim "Use it to help you get through Christmas with the in-laws" was irresponsible, because it suggested alcohol could be used as a means of getting through difficult or stressful occasions.

CAP Code (Edition 11)

Response

The Trainline.com (The Trainline) said the first stage of the promotion involved customers booking a ticket before 18 December to qualify to receive a £20-off voucher. They said those customers were subject to the Trainline's terms and conditions, which stipulated that users had to be over 18 years of age to purchase a ticket. They said Virgin Wines were then responsible for sending an e-mail to customers who qualified to receive the £20 voucher.

The Trainline said they would ask Virgin Wines to include the text "please drink responsibly", a link to the drink aware website and the text "offer not available to under 18s" to reiterate the age limit in future joint promotions.

Virgin Wines said they had discussed the issue of under age drinking with their local Trading Standards department who had agreed that they were a low risk business in that area. They said an under age drinker would find it very difficult to purchase alcohol from Virgin Wines, because they would need a credit or debit card, which was rare for under 18s to use without parental supervision; they would have to spend £40 or more as well as pay a delivery charge of £5.99 and they would have to wait for a week for the wine to arrive. They said, given that information, the risk of an under 18-year-old purchasing alcohol from Virgin Wines was very low.

They said they had additional safeguards in that their terms and conditions made clear that under 18s could not buy from them and their delivery company was empowered not to deliver goods where they had cause to believe the recipient was under 18.

Virgin Wines said their target market was aged 30-55 years and they therefore always tried to target partners who had mature customer bases; The Trainline was a good example of a partner whose customer base was overwhelmingly adult with a very high concentration of 40-55-year-olds.

They said they had not intended for the text "Use it to help you get through Christmas with the in-laws" to suggest that drinking wine was a way of dealing with stress. They said the intended meaning was that during the Christmas period it would be useful to have some wine available, because people were likely to have visitors who would want to be served wine and other drinks. They said the reference to the "in-laws" was meant to suggest that "in-laws" were more demanding than most and therefore might require more wine.

Assessment

1. Not upheld

The ASA noted The Trainline's terms and conditions specified that users had to be over 18 and that customers had to agree to those conditions before they bought a ticket. We also noted Virgin had chosen the Trainline as a partner because they had a mainly adult customer base.

We considered that the ad had been properly targeted and was not irresponsible. We nevertheless welcomed The Trainline's suggested improvements to the text of the e-mail.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Responsible advertising) and 56.5 (Alcoholic drinks) but did not find it in breach.

2. Not upheld

We noted the complainant was concerned that the text "use it to help you get through Christmas with the in-laws" suggested that it was acceptable to use alcohol to become intoxicated to cope with difficult situations.

However, we considered that the ad as a whole was intended to be light-hearted and in that context the text "use it to help you get through Christmas with the in-laws" was unlikely to be taken seriously by most recipients. We concluded that the ad was unlikely to encourage excessive drinking or be seen to suggest that alcohol could overcome problems.

On this point, we investigated the ad under CAP Code clauses 2.2 (Responsible advertising) and 56.4 (Alcoholic drinks) but did not find it in breach.

Action

No further action required.

Adjudication of the ASA Council (Non-broadcast)