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ASA bans Ellie Goulding’s Served ads

Two Facebook posts from hard seltzer brand Served Drinks, co-owned by singer Ellie Goulding, have been banned by the UK’s advertising watchdog for making health claims.

Ellie Goulding Served
Ellie Goulding with Served’s co-founders Ryan and Dean Ginsberg

The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) investigated 21 complaints against hard seltzer producer Served in response to two sponsored Facebook ads, two posts on Served Drinks’ Instagram page and a marketing email.

English singer-songwriter Ellie Goulding, who features in some of Served’s ads, acquired a ‘significant’ stake in the 4% ABV hard seltzer brand last summer.

One sponsored post for Served Drinks, seen on Goulding’s Facebook page on 17 February 2022, stated, “If you’re like me, you love a drink but also enjoy an active lifestyle. My delicious alcoholic sparkling water is the best of both worlds”.

The second sponsored post, seen on Goulding’s Facebook page on 19 February, featured text stating, “You guys know I love a drink, but I also really care about my well-being. Since I launched my alcoholic sparkling water there is no going back for me!”

The post also include a video of the singer who said: “I love a drink, as I talk about a lot on my social media, but I also care about my health… That’s why I want to tell you about my new drink Served. So, my new drink Served is a hard seltzer, it has 57 calories.”

Both of the sponsored posts featured further text that read: “[tick symbol] 57 cals … [tick symbol] 4% vol”.

The Facebook posts were investigated over their health claims, with the ASA ruling that the ads breached the Code for suggesting they were beneficial for health-related wellbeing.

Furthermore, the complainants challenged whether the references ‘[tick symbol] 57 cals’ in the Facebook posts and ‘Our drinks only have 57 calories, 0g Sugar’ in a marketing email were nutrition claims that were not permitted for alcoholic drinks.

The email from Served Drinks, seen on 18 January 2022, featured the text: “Forget Dry January … Is dry January becoming a little dry? There’s no reason you can’t enjoy a drink without setting you back! Our drinks only have 57 calories, 0g sugar and are 4% ABV and are the perfect choice for a tipple without all the guilt.”

The ASA said it had acknowledged that it was acceptable for advertisers to make factual numerical statements about the calorie content of an alcoholic drink. However, it considered that by preceding that statement with the words ‘Our drinks only have’, the email suggested that the product had the particular beneficial nutritional property of being low in calories (i.e. energy).

It therefore breached the ASA’s Code for making a nutrition claim equivalent to a ‘low-calorie/energy nutrition claim’, which is not allowed for alcohol. The reference to 57 calories and a tick symbol was also deemed to be a ‘low-calorie/energy nutrition claim’ by the ASA.

In response to the complaints, Served said it believed its reference to ‘0 sugar’ was not a nutritional claim, but a statement of fact.

The hard seltzer brand said it had acknowledged that the word ‘only’ should not be used in conjunction with a statement about the number of calories in a product, and would avoid using phrases such as ‘only 57 calories’.

Drinking to defeat boredom claim

The email was also challenged for its irresponsible suggestion that drinking alcohol might be indispensable and could overcome boredom by encouraging people who were taking part in Dry January to consume alcohol.

Served Drinks believed the timing of the email, which was almost three weeks into January, did not support the proposition that it suggested drinking alcohol was indispensable. It also noted that the artwork featured a can of Served with two glasses to suggest it would be consumed by two people. As such, the producer believed that the ad was not targeted at an individual who was bored and alone.

Served also believed the phrase “Is dry January becoming a little dry?” was a play on words rather than a claim that alcohol was indispensable and could overcome boredom.

The ASA upheld the complaint and believed the text was encouraging consumers to consume alcohol before the end of the month to ‘overcome the boredom or tedium of Dry January’.

Two Instagram posts for Served referencing ‘day drinking and ‘mid-week drinking’ also came under fire for being deemed irresponsible and likely to lead people to adopt unwise styles of drinking. However, the ASA did not find them in breach of its regulations.

The ASA concluded that the sponsored Facebook posts and marketing email could not appear again in their current form.

The Spirits Business has approached Served Drinks for further comment.

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