As the stoush between the alcohol drinks companies and the newly formed Alcohol Advertising Review Board (AARB) heats up, alcohol advertisers are questioning why the body hasn’t dished out any determinations as yet.
A string of letters outlining advertising complaints have been sent to alcohol companies including CUB and Lion, but the two advertisers have not been handed any determinations.
The AARB has stated it will handle complaints within 20 working days on average, but many complaints were sent out as far back as March.
At the end of May, CUB posted a statement on the Foster’s website stating it had been over 70 days since many complaints were sent through. A spokesperson for the company told AdNews: “We still haven’t received any complaints. We would be concerned legitimate complaints aren’t being dealt with appropriately, and have asked complaints be referred to ABAC [Alcoholic Beverages Advertising Code].”
Mike Daube, a professor at Curtin University’s McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth and a co-creator of the AARB, said: “We are working on our timelines, not the alcohol drink industry’s. We have had a substantial number of complaints and will be publishing our report in the coming weeks.
“For our first report, we wanted to include what we thought was an appropriate amount of complaints, rather than just a few early ones.”
The AARB, a joint initiative between Cancer Council WA and the McCusker Centre for Action on Alcohol and Youth, was set up in Western Australia in March as an alternative to the Advertising Standards Bureau and the ABAC. Its stated aim was the consideration and adjudication of complaints received from members of the community.
CUB posted the complaints on its website. Some ads to receive complaints included a Fat Yak Pale Ale outdoor campaign featuring a yak’s blurred-out genitalia; a Carlton Draught ‘Carlton Pick’ app which the body claimed was aimed at youths; and a Carlton Dry outdoor ad with the strapline, ‘There comes a time in every man’s life and that time is not now’, which the AARB claimed was directed towards young men.
Another ad to receive a complaint included a VB ‘Raise a Glass Appeal’ ad featuring former chief of the Australian Defence Force Peter Cosgrove, which the AARB said was aired during a sporting event when children would be watching, while arguing it glorified drinking by using a hero figure.
This article first appeared in the 15 June 2012 edition of
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