Ad description
Digital escalator panels, posters and vinyl wall displays for Absolut Vodka, seen on 18 September 2025 in Charing Cross Underground station in London:
a. The digital escalator panels featured images of the limited-edition Absolut Haring Vodka bottle, with a yellow background, red lines, and red lined dancing figures in the style of Keith Haring. Other panels featured videos of groups of people dancing, and a cut out of a painting of a yellow Absolut Vodka bottle, taken from an artwork by Keith Haring.
b. The posters, which were seen on the station walls, featured an artwork by Keith Haring and the text “ABSOLUT HARING”. The artwork featured a stylised painting of an Absolut Vodka bottle on a yellow background, with cartoon dancing figures drawn in colourful lines.
c. The vinyl wall displays were seen throughout the station. They featured red, blue and yellow dancing figures in the style of Keith Haring, yellow Absolut Vodka bottles, taken from an artwork by Keith Haring, and the London Underground sign for Charing Cross station with the “C” covered by a dancing figure.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ads were likely to appeal particularly to people under 18 years of age.
Response
Pernod Ricard UK Ltd t/a Absolut believed the ads were not likely to appeal particularly to children.
They said Keith Haring’s work primarily appealed to adults. They explained that his art addressed serious social and political themes and that the campaign drew on nostalgia for his 1986 collaboration with Absolut, during which he painted several artworks featuring Absolut Vodka bottles. Those paintings were then used in ads by the brand. They said he was a world-renowned artist who lived from 1958 to 1990, and they said he was not a person who would have been particularly familiar to those under 18 years of age. They provided evidence which demonstrated that social media accounts affiliated with Keith Haring had predominantly adult audiences.
On the artwork, they said the stylised, silhouette-based design was typical of Haring’s work and was not childlike in design. They believed that the artwork did not feature elements commonly recognised as appealing to children, such as cute or anthropomorphic animals, fairy-tale characters, exaggerated features, or visuals akin to popular video-game styles.
They said the collaboration’s focus on art and nostalgia meant it did not have particular appeal to people under 18. They added that the campaign had run in multiple markets without complaint, and that a similar 2024 Absolut collaboration with Andy Warhol ran without complaint.
Assessment
Not upheld
The CAP Code stated that alcohol ads must not be likely to appeal particularly to people under 18, especially by reflecting or being associated with youth culture or showing adolescent or juvenile behaviour. They should not feature or portray real or fictitious characters who were likely to appeal particularly to people under 18 in a way that might encourage the young to drink. Alcohol ads must not, therefore, have content that would appeal more to under-18s than it would to over-18s.
The ASA considered that the artwork used in the ads, although bold and colourful, was unlikely to have particular appeal to people under 18. The figures used were stylised silhouettes and dancing figures and they were not childish in their design or execution. The figures were not seen in juvenile or adolescent scenarios, and did not feature imagery with obvious references to youth culture. We considered that some adults would recognise the style used in the ads as being reminiscent of Keith Haring’s style. However, we considered that children were unlikely to recognise the style, and therefore would not have found it engaging on that basis. We considered that the artwork used in the ads would not have greater appeal to under-18s than to over-18s.
We also considered Keith Haring’s likely appeal. We understood that his work was often associated with adult social and political themes. His collaboration with Absolut dated from 1986 and was not associated with youth culture. We acknowledged that during his lifetime, Haring worked with children, and that his imagery had at times featured in collaborations relevant to children. However, we did not consider that, in context of the ads, Keith Haring or his artwork were likely to have greater appeal to under-18s than to over 18s.
For those reasons, we concluded that the ads were unlikely to appeal particularly to people aged under 18 and therefore did not breach the Code.
We investigated the ads under CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 18.14 (Alcohol), but did not find them in breach.
Action
No further action necessary.
