Ad description

A circular, for an alcohol delivery company, showed an image of a glass of spirit and a lit cigar. Text stated "THE DRINK BOX Drinking Made Simple". The reverse of the ad provided further details of the service.

Issue

The complainant challenged whether the ad was irresponsibly targeted and advertised alcohol to under-18s.

Response

The Drink Box did not respond to the ASA's enquiries.

Assessment

The ASA was concerned by The Drink Box's lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code and ruled that they had breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rule  1.7 1.7 Any unreasonable delay in responding to the ASA's enquiries will normally be considered a breach of the Code.  (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to respond promptly to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.

Not upheld

CAP Code rule  18.15 18.15 Marketing communications must not be directed at people under 18 through the selection of media or the context in which they appear. No medium should be used to advertise alcoholic drinks if more than 25% of its audience is under 18 years of age.  required that no medium was used to advertise alcoholic drinks if more than 25% of its audience was under 18 years of age, which also applied to ads that featured or referred to alcoholic drinks. We had no reason to believe the mailing was distributed to an audience that was not representative of the general population, which we understood was less than 25% under-18s, or that it otherwise included greater than 25% under-18s. We therefore concluded that the ad was not irresponsibly targeted.

We investigated the ad under CAP Code (Edition 12) rules  1.3 1.3 Marketing communications must be prepared with a sense of responsibility to consumers and to society.  (Responsible advertising) and  18.15 18.15 Marketing communications must not be directed at people under 18 through the selection of media or the context in which they appear. No medium should be used to advertise alcoholic drinks if more than 25% of its audience is under 18 years of age.  (Alcohol), but did not find it in breach.

Action

We told The Drink Box to ensure they responded to our enquiries in future.

CAP Code (Edition 12)

1.3     1.7     18.15    


More on