AU Vodka ads banned by ASA

The UK’s advertising watchdog has upheld a complaint against seven Instagram posts by AU Vodka due to their links to alcohol consumption and driving, and excessive drinking.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) issued its decision against seven Instagram posts on @auvodka and several images on the brand’s website.

The posts were challenged by one complainant on the basis that they encouraged excessive drinking, were irresponsible because they linked alcohol with driving and dangerous machinery, and featured someone who was under the age of 25.

One Instagram post featured the rapper Ghetts surrounded by 13 bottles of the vodka, while another showed a video of rapper Chipmunk sitting on the bonnet of a car – while pouring a glass of AU – and in the passenger’s seat of a car drinking from the glass.

Another post showed a man sitting in a forklift truck, holding a bottle of the vodka and a glass containing the drink.

The brand’s website also featured several images of men surrounded by multiple bottles of the vodka.

In its response to the complaint, AU Vodka said its ads did not encourage excessive drinking and that the multiple bottles displayed were only for decorative purposes. They also argued that they had seen other brands feature numerous bottles on display in their advertising.

Furthermore, AU said the amount of vodka shown in the glasses were not extreme and the people depicted did not display behaviour that suggested they had consumed too much alcohol.

The ASA said: “While we acknowledged that there was no indication that any of the people in the ads had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol, we considered that the image of one person drinking in the presence of a large number of bottles of alcohol in each of the ads was likely to encourage excessive consumption of alcohol.”

The brand did, however, decide to remove the Instagram post of an image of a man pouring a bottle of AU Vodka on to his mouth and teeth, with the drink splashing down him, while holding another vodka bottle in his other hand. The brand said they felt it might cause confusion around excessive drinking.

The ASA said this post showed alcohol ‘being handled and consumed in an uncontrolled and irresponsible manner and was likely to encourage people to adopt styles of drinking that were unwise’.

AU also removed the ads featuring Chipmunk in the car and the man sitting in the forklift, and pledged to not share any content where a person was shown sitting in the driver or passenger seat of a car in future.

The ASA said it had acknowledged AU Vodka’s removal of the two ads, but concluded that they were irresponsible and breached the Code.

Furthermore, one ad featured rapper Aitch who was 21 years old at the time the post appeared. As such, the ASA said he was the focus of the image and concluded that the ad also breached the Code, which requires alcohol ads to only show people who were, or appeared to be, 25 years of age or over.

The ASA ruled that these ads must not appear again in their current form.