Top drinks marketing campaigns and news: May

The UK’s advertising watchdogs are “ready and prepared” to clamp down on alcohol brands that sell their drinks to young consumers by suggesting they will be happier, more confident, or successful, a panel of experts warned during Mental Health Awareness week in May.

Amy Powell, client relationships manager at PromoVeritas, said that some brands have already struggled to get this right, falling foul of the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). Powell was addressing a room of brand owners, bartenders, and marketers at an event focusing on the relationship between alcohol and wellbeing in London, coinciding with Mental Health Awareness Week in the UK.

She cited a 2016 by Captain Morgan rum, which the ASA banned after finding it implied that alcohol can improve people’s confidence.

According to the ASA, claiming that alcohol has therapeutic qualities or is the answer to overcoming boredom and loneliness or other problems, will “pretty much always break the rules”, Powell said. She added that brands need to ensure that their marketing campaigns do not inadvertently target under-age drinkers.

The warning comes after a study by the University of Stirling and Cancer Research found that young people’s awareness of alcohol marketing is associated with increased and higher-risk consumption.