ASA Ruling on Co-operative Group Ltd
Co-operative Group Ltd t/a
The Co-operative Food
1 Angel Square
Manchester
M60 0AG
Date:
9 December 2015
Media:
Radio
Sector:
Retail
Number of complaints:
1
Agency:
Leo Burnett
Complaint Ref:
A15-312116
Background
Summary of Council decision:
Two issues were investigated, both were Upheld.
Ad
A radio ad for Co-op heard in August 2015 stated, “Suns out, garden chair, drinks. In-laws, great, drinks. Cricket, wicket, drinks. At your local Co-op selected spirits are just £13 each. Little, often, Co-op. Participating stores, subject to availability. 70cl, ends 1st September. Please drink responsibly.”
Issue
1. One listener objected that inclusion of the slogan “Little, often, Co-op” in conjunction with an ad for alcohol products was irresponsible.
2. The ASA challenged whether the ad was irresponsible because the repetition of the word “drinks” could condone or encourage immoderate drinking.
BCAP Code
Response
1. & 2. Co-operative Group Ltd (Co-op) said that as a convenience retailer they used the slogan “Little. Often. Co-op” to refer to the shopping habits of their customers. They used it across their brand communications to promote a variety of products but it was never used to refer to consumption of those products. They said it was always stated distinctly and separately from wording relating to the featured products. They said they didn’t intend to repeat this particular ad, which only ran for a short period, but they did intend to use the slogan in future ads, including those for alcohol.
They said there was no intention that either the slogan or the various summertime scenarios featured in the ad would imply, condone or encourage irresponsible or immoderate drinking. The repetition of the word “drinks” was a reference to scenarios in which customers might purchase the featured products, and was not used to condone or encourage immoderate drinking, nor suggest buying rounds of drinks. There was no intention to relate the words “drinks” to frequency of consumption. They also pointed out that the ad included the words “please drink responsibly”.
Radiocentre said that it would be clear to the majority of listeners that the use of the slogan related to how customers used Co-op for their shopping, rather than relating to the drinks referenced in the ad. They said that the use of the repeated word “drinks” was in the context of a variety of different social occasions where several people were in attendance and that there was therefore no implication that any one person was consuming multiple drinks. There was also no suggestion that the occasions all took place on one day.
Assessment
1. & 2. Upheld
The ASA considered that many listeners, although not all, would be familiar with the slogan “Little. Often. Co-op”. We did not consider that it was inherently problematic to use the slogan in an ad for alcohol, but that it needed to be considered in the context of the particular ad. In this case the ad included reference to three brief scenarios followed by “drinks”, which we considered would be understood by listeners to refer to the consumption of alcohol. The scenarios were all spoken by the same person and, in combination with the use of the slogan and fact the ad was for spirits, we considered that the ad implied it was desirable to drink frequently. We therefore concluded that the ad was irresponsible.
The ad breached BCAP Code rules 1.2 (Social responsibility) and 19.2 (Alcohol).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Co-operative Group Ltd to take care when using the slogan “Little. Often. Co-op” in ads for alcohol to ensure they did not condone or encourage immoderate drinking.
