BrewDog pulls “tongue in cheek” hard seltzer Instagram ad after UK advertising watchdog steps in

07 Jul 2021 --- BrewDog has pulled an Instagram post for its alcoholic hard seltzer drink following intervention from the UK’s Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) which has ruled that the Scottish brewery has breached advertising rules for making unsubstantiated nutritional and health claims.

The ad was originally posted on January 21 and included an image of a can of Clean & Press Hard Seltzer and the text “Due to advertising regulations, we cannot claim this drink is healthy.”

The text below the image stated, “Even though Clean & Press is only 90 calories per can, with no carbs or sugar and a little bit of alcohol, this is not a health drink. If you are looking for a health drink, do not drink Clean & Press.”

The ASA challenged whether the claims “only 90 calories per can” and “no carbs or sugar” were nutrition claims that were not permitted for alcoholic drinks.

The agency was investigating after several complainants challenged whether the wording implied that the drink was healthy – therefore, general health claims are not permitted for alcoholic drinks.

The ASA also challenged whether the claim “a little bit of alcohol” implied that the drink was low alcohol, which was not a permitted claim for the drink because it had an alcoholic strength by volume (ABV) of 5 percent.

Tongue in cheek
The multinational brewery and pub chain based in Scotland accepted that it had breached the Code and agreed that this post would not be used in future campaigns.

The BrewDog paid-for Instagram post was “tongue in cheek advertising,” according to the company.

“We have accepted the ASA ruling and have removed the wording in question,” a BrewDog spokesperson tells FoodIngredientsFirst.BrewDog is a multinational brewery and pub chain based in Ellon, Scotland.

They would not make any further comment.

“The CAP Code required that only nutrition claims listed in the Annex of Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims on foods were permitted in ads promoting foods or drinks. From January 01, 2021, only nutrition claims authorized on the Great Britain nutrition and health claims (NHC) register were permitted in marketing communications,” explains the ASA ruling.

“The Code defined a nutrition claim as any claim which stated, suggested or implied that a food (or drink) had particular beneficial nutritional properties due to the amount of calories, nutrients or other substances it contained, did not contain, or contained in reduced or increased proportions.”

The CAP Code further required that the only permitted nutrition claims that could be made in relation to alcohol were “low-alcohol,” “reduced alcohol,” and “reduced energy,” it states.

Health claims further scrutinized
The ASA considered the claim “no carbs or sugar” suggested that the product had particular beneficial nutritional properties because it did not contain carbohydrates or sugar.

The ad, therefore, included a nutrition claim that the product did not contain carbohydrates, which, in addition to not being permitted to be made in relation to alcohol, was not permitted to be made in relation to any food or drink product, explains the ASA.

“The nutrition claim ‘sugar-free’ could be made in relation to foods or drinks which met the associated conditions of use for the claim, but it was not a nutrition claim that was permitted to be made in relation to alcohol.”

Honing in on words
The CAP Code allowed that ads for alcoholic drinks could give factual information about product contents. It was therefore permissible for advertisers to make factual numerical statements about the calorific content of an alcoholic drink in their advertising, such as “90 calories per can.”

“However, we considered that by preceding that statement with the word ‘only,’ the ad suggested that the drink had the particular beneficial nutritional property of being low in calories (i.e., energy),” the ASA ruling continues.

Hard seltzers popularity bubbling up
Clean & Press was one of BrewDog’s innovation projects that were fast-tracked last year in the initial stages of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Hard seltzers have been taking the US by storm and are gaining traction across the UK and Europe.

At the time of the Clean & Press launch, Brewdog said: “We wanted to put a craft BrewDog spin on this emerging category. Rather than being fermented like the US seltzers, our Clean and Press seltzer is spiked with our exceptionally high-quality single malt vodka, Rogue Wave.”

“Clean and Press is quite simply sparkling Scottish water, spiked with our own vodka and infused with all-natural fruit flavors.”

By Gaynor Selby