Beer brand XXXX Gold accused of breaching rules on marketing to children
Beer brand XXXX Gold has been accused of breaking the rules on the promotion of alcohol to children at its beach cricket event at the weekend.
The Lion Nathan-owned brand is behind the popular tri-nation series featuring veteran cricket heroes which draws big crowds and is also televised.
But concerns have been raised about whether the event breached guidelines on the promotion of alcohol at events by giving away XXXX prizes to kids who took part in competitions. The rules state:
“A condition of entry into giveaways promoted by alcohol companies at or in association with events is that participants must be over the legal drinking age; and prizes given away in promotions associated with alcohol beverage companies will only be awarded to winners who are over the legal drinking age.”
Writing in the Another Marketing Wanker blog, Nathan Bush said that about 30% of the crowd were children. He said: “We had free XXXX Gold hats for everyone as they walk through the gates, XXXX Gold showbags, XXXX Gold signage on every available surface, XXXX Gold dancers, XXXX Gold TVC’s and kids participating in catching competitions to win XXXX Gold cricket bats. This raises the question, is this promoting alcohol to children?”
He adds: “We can see that XXXX Gold are very close to treading on off stump here. In fact, I can say for sure that they broke that last regulation.”
The Alcoholic Beverages Advertising Code is enforced by the Advertising Standards Bureau. CEO Fiona Jolly told Mumbrella that it would only investigate a case such as this if a complaint was received and so far there had not been any.
A spokesman for XXXX Gold told Mumbrella this morning that the main audience of the branded content event was male adults, and that clear licenced and non-licenced areas were in place. However, she said she would need to make further inquries on the issue of prizes being given to children as she had not been at the event herself.
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My oh my.
I have had a little to do with this brand and this project. It was a few years back at it’s inception and at no point was there any interest in marketing to kids.
Whilst people under 18 get drunk and get alcohol, it is certainly not a segment beer goes after. Think bright orange, pink and blue bubbly drinks for that segment.
A beer brand in trouble for supplying hats an outdoor beach event where people stand for hours?
We better get get our hanging boots on as this is a big sin indeed.
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