Bacardi Lion has broken ranks with big alcohol companies including Diageo, Lion and Carlton United Brewers by choosing to adhere to a ruling by the Alcohol Advertising Review Board.
In its first set of determinations handed down last week, the AARB upheld a complaint received relating to the placement of a bus stop ad for Bacardi’s Eristoff Vodka brand near a children’s playground, requesting the ad to be removed.
Bacardi Lion is a joint venture between Lion and Bacardi Martini, but unlike Lion – which refused to engage with the AARB – Bacardi adhered to the AARB’s ruling.
“With regards to your email and consumer complaint attached below we have taken immediate action to remove the advertising from the listed site,” Bacardi Lion wrote in response to the AARB ruling. “The advertising was removed around 1pm today. We have raised this issue with our media agency and Adshel to ensure this does not happen again in the future.”
The ad, part of Eristoff’s ‘Vodka from the Land of the Wolf’ campaign, features a prominent image of a wolf. The AARB ruled the imagery was in breach of its code as it was “particularly attractive to young males, who would be keen to associate themselves with a strong, independent, dangerous icon depicted as the wolf in the Eristoff Vodka advertisement”.
Bacardi Lion could not be reached for comment but AARB spokesperson and co-founder Professor Mike Daube said its response was “a great credit” to the company.
“They got back to us straight away which is terrific,” he said. “Some of the big alcohol companies are taking the party line of saying ‘you don’t exist, we won’t talk to you’, which seems a little ostrich-like. [Bacardi Lion] has set a positive example. It is not the only industry group willing to engage with us and I hope over time the other large companies will, too.”
Daube stressed that while the AARB has no formal powers, neither does the industry-backed self-regulatory Alcohol Beverages Advertising Code. Other companies which responded to AARB determinations were Independent Distillers Asia Pacific, Winemakers Direct and Direct Wine Cellars.
In future, the AARB will not release rulings in a quarterly report but as they are determined. Daube said new determinations would be released before the end of next week.
This article first appeared in the 10 August 2012 print edition of AdNews.
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