Ad description
A post on Supervan Delivery’s Facebook page, dated 30 July 2021, included the caption “HANGOVERS ARE TEMPORARY. DRUNK STORIES LAST FOREVER. http://www.supervan247.co.uk #weekendvibes #partytime #hertfordshire”. The post included an image of the advertiser’s logo and eight cartoon drawings of people with drinks whilst in different scenarios including urinating, vomiting and not being able to stand.
Issue
The complainant challenged whether the ad was socially irresponsible, because it encouraged excessive drinking and anti-social behaviour.Response
SuperVan Alcohol Delivery did not respond to the ASA’s enquiries.Assessment
Upheld
The ASA was concerned by SuperVan Alcohol Delivery’s lack of response and apparent disregard for the Code, which was a breach of CAP Code (Edition 12) rule 1.7 (Unreasonable delay). We reminded them of their responsibility to provide a substantive response to our enquiries and told them to do so in future.
The CAP Code stated that marketing communications must be socially responsible and must contain nothing that was likely to lead people to adopt styles of drinking that were unwise. The CAP Code also stated that marketing communications must neither show, imply, encourage or refer to aggression or unruly, irresponsible or anti-social behaviour nor link alcohol with brave, tough or daring people or behaviour. We considered that the statements “HANGOVERS ARE TEMPORARY” and “DRUNK STORIES LAST FOREVER” glorified getting drunk and drunken behaviour and therefore encouraged people to drink excessively. All but one of the eight cartoon drawings depicted people holding drinks or who were next to drinks that had the appearance of wine or beer bottles, or pint glasses. We considered that, in combination with the ad being for an alcohol delivery service, meant that consumers would understand the images were intended to depict people consuming alcoholic drinks. Many of the cartoon drawings depicted people engaging in unruly and anti-social behaviours that were commonly associated with excessive drunkenness, such as urinating, vomiting or being unable to stand. We considered the images therefore showed and encouraged unruly, irresponsible and anti-social behaviour in association with the consumption of alcohol.
Because the ad encouraged people to adopt styles of drinking that were unwise and depicted and encouraged irresponsible, unruly and anti-social behaviour, we concluded that it was irresponsible and breached the Code.
The ad breached CAP Code (Edition 12) rules 18.1 and 18.4 (Alcohol).
Action
The ad must not appear again in the form complained of. We told SuperVan Alcohol Delivery to ensure their future ads contained nothing that was likely to lead people to adopt styles of drinking that were unwise, or depict or encourage unruly, irresponsible or anti-social behaviour. We referred the matter to CAP’s Compliance team.
