ASA bans Stuart Pearce Carlsberg ad for promoting drinking in an 'unsafe and unwise' location
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has slapped Carlsberg with a ban over an ad which seen former England player Stuart Pearce delivering beer to a building site.
Following a complaint from Alcohol Concern the campaign has been quashed by the watchdog for promoting drinking in "unsafe and unwise" location.
The video showed Pearce and a delivery driver arriving at a building site with a giant crate of Carlsberg to present to the builders on the site as a surprise. After the initial stunt, workers in the ad were shown carrying one pack of Carlsberg each on their shoulders while on-screen text stating: "'BULK BEER' appeared twice. Further text at the end of the ad stated 'If Carlsberg did substitutions."
The spot first appeared on the YouTube channel of builders' merchant TradePoint, but Alchocol Concern argued that it broke ad rules because it showed a large quantity of beer being delivered to a work site, linking drink with the use of potentially dangerous equipment and machinery.
The booze brand argued that no one in the ad was shown consuming the beer, and that it wasn't suggested the workers would drink it on site. It also said that references to the "summer" and the "Euros" contained in the film implied the alcohol would be consumed over a long period of time.
The regulator, however, disagreed saying that it "considered that a building site would be an unsafe and unwise location in which to consume alcohol".
"Because the ad linked alcohol with that location, we concluded that it breached the code," it concluded, warning the Carlsberg and Trade Point to ensure their ads did not link alcohol with locations in which drinking would be unsafe or unwise in future.