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UNATTRACTIVE MEN SOUGHT FOR LIQUOR ADS

British Spirits Company Strikes Back Against U.K. Ad Regulators

August 08, 2005

QwikFIND ID: AAQ81G

By Emma Hall



LONDON (AdAge.com) -- In a clever public relations coup, the president of

Halewood International distilleries has deftly turned a rebuke by U.K.

advertising regulators into a hilarious stunt that has focused more

attention than ever on his products.



Halewood International has turned a clash with British advertising

regulators into a PR stunt that has drawn world attention. The top image

above is the offending ad; the lower image is the company's response seeking

unattractive males for its next ad campaign.



In June, the Liverpool-based spirits company's new ad for its carbonated,

peach-flavored Lambrini drink ran afoul of the British Code of Advertising

Practices' recently tightened prohibition against ads that suggest alcoholic

drinks may contribute to sexual-social success. That new restriction, which

may sound silly to a U.S. audience, was actually motivated by a countrywide

concern over the growing problem of binge drinking among British youth.



Sexually edgy ads

Halewood International, which has a controversial history of running

sexually edgy ads, is now required to submit its work to the U.K.

Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) before publishing it. When it

submitted its latest ad for the Lambrini brand, ASA rejected it.



That ad shows three attractive young women ?winning? a hunky young man in a

parody of a traditional British fairground game where rubber ducks are

"fished" out of a pond with a hooked pole. The ad was created by the

Manchester-based CheethamBell JWT agency.



The ASA informed Halewood that it considers "advert is in danger of implying

that the drink may bring sexual/social success, because the man in question

looks quite attractive and desirable. If the man was clearly unattractive,

we think that this implication would be removed. This does not mean that we

are banning attractive people from alcohol advertising.?



'Fat, middle-aged golfers'

Seizing on the wording about "unattractive men" Halewood's chairman-CEO,

John Halewood, responded by creating and publicizing a new advertisement for

Lambrini that sought to recruit "fat, middle-aged golfers" to star in a new

Lambrini ad that would be more in keeping with the ASA's sensibilities.



Apparently in order to avoid having to submit the work for ASA approval as a

public advertisement, Mr. Halewood erected the new ad as a large poster in

his own backyard, which overlooks the Royal Birkdale golf course -- where

the British Women?s Open Championship was being played.



Mr. Halewood said, ?We?re not sure the ASA is qualified to decide for the

nation who?s sexy and who?s not. Beauty is after all in the eye of the

beholder ?- perhaps the ASA should take a look in the mirror before they

decide they?ve got the rulebook on sexual prowess.?