That's a bit rum.
Disclaimer: I just slapped myself for that one.
Rum peddler Captain Morgan has come under fire from the UK ads watchdog for using a Snapchat lens that could appeal to underage teenagers. In response, the drinks firm has suspended all its advertising with Snap globally, while it assess the incremental age verification safeguards that Snapchat is implementing. The lens made …
RJR settled the Mangini case out of court in 1997 (thus implicitly accepting the claim that they were targeting children) after Congress and various other groups started really applying pressure. And we needn't go into the leaked internal documents proving kids as young as 14 were definitely a target group. At this point in time, anybody who thinks that the "Joe" campaign wasn't explicitly targeting children is stubbornly, willfully and intentionally ignorant.
Ahh life before the internet, that takes me back to the days of prank calls in phone boxes either by tapping out the numbers or even earlier getting it to register a 2p but not letting it take it (a skill finely honed I might add) or the days of nicking coal and the paraffin lamps from the road works for your den. Fun with Train yard detonators and swimming in the canal next to the chemical works.
Those were the days.
"[...] even earlier getting it to register a 2p [...]"
1d in the days of A & B buttons when calling Akela was one of a cub's badge tests. IIRC some people learned to bypass the coin mechanism by judicious timing of taps on the cradle switch to dial a number.
Opening a little door on the local police box showed an emergency phone - and initiated the blue light flashing on the top of the box. That was the time before even Panda cars - when Fabian of the Yard was announced by the ringing of bells on his car.
There was a particular smell to government institutions - disinfectant and floor polish? Memorable when sneaking into the Drill Hall to retrieve spent .22 cases. Great entertainment when the Territorials' vehicles left in procession to join exercises - their tank tracks marked the main roads for miles.
So the ASA will keelhaul Captain Morgan "because there is a chance that under-18s might see it", but are perfectly happy with adverts all over the tube from the vegan society proclaiming how the dairy industry "butchers the young" of cattle, regardless of how this might make young children feel...
Don't start me on bloody vegans.
That "milk is for babies" one is pissing me off.
What the fuck do they think will happen to all the dairy cows. Kept as pets?
Of course they refuse to look at the environmental damage drinking that revolting piss they call almond milk does.
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/shortcuts/2015/oct/21/almond-milk-quite-good-for-you-very-bad-for-the-planet
"That "milk is for babies" one is pissing me off."
The irony of that is that in my various research forays, I have yet to find a formula for human babies that does not depend on cow's milk.
In short, if a vegan mother cannot breast-feed her child for whatever reason, her choices are to either compromise her belief and feed her child a product derived from cow's milk, or damage said child's development through various nutrient deficiencies.
Of course, if anyone can show me that this is not the case, I will gracefully yield on the point...
"[...] or damage said child's development through various nutrient deficiencies."
Has already happened in at least one case in Belgium.
"perfectly happy with adverts all over the tube from the vegan society"
that's right, liquored-up average people who like to drink spiced rum aren't important enough because they don't whine loud enough for the news media to care [liquored-up rum drinkers are busy enjoying their lives and not being a pain in the ass to everyone around them nor driving an agenda to force everybody else to do (or not do) things].
And don't forget - a cartoon Captain Morgan means it targets children, like Joe Camel. Because "cartoons are for widdle kiddies" [even pornographic anime and the old Heavy Metal movie, uh-huh, uh-huh, uh-huh].
yeah, the hypocrisy of it all. *sigh*
"even pornographic anime and the old Heavy Metal movie"
I have never met a "calendar adult" into such things that I didn't personally think of as a childish human being.
Funny thing about the HM movie ... when it came out, I was a volunteer keeping the aging but excellent mostly McIntosh sound system at The Varsity in Palo Alto working. There was often a weekend late-night HM showing. Probably 85% of the audience was teenagers. The rest were perpetually stoned hippies who hadn't quite figured out that the 60s were over, and the occasional young adult couple on a date. This last category always left with a somewhat bemused expression ...
"I have never met a "calendar adult" into such things that I didn't personally think of as a childish human being."
If you are including cartoon strip books then you should see the market for them in France, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Asterix the Gaul is pitched at many levels of comprehension. The author "Lauzier" was definitely only aiming for an adult audience.
In the UK Guardian newspaper there was the topical "Mrs Weber's Diary" by Posy Simmonds - taking the proverbial out of what would be considered their core readership. The Daily Telegraph's "Alex" about City fat cats has been running for years - having made the rather surprising leap from a more obvious left wing newspaper. In the USA "Doonesbury" fills the same niche.
There's nothing stopping under 18s walking into shops and horror of horrors, seeing a Captain Morgan logo on *gasp* a bottle of afore named rum.
Ads targeted at those who claim to be over 18 (if they are lying too bad, drinks co has made appropriate effort)
Are we to ban old Jamaica and other brands of rum flavoured chocolate bars next? (after all, choc appeals to kids - ditto all the various alcohol filled chocs teh shops wer flogging ver Xmas (& now flogging at reduced but still extortionate prices to clear the space for next round of holiday themed dross - Easter Eggs))
The difference is that advertising is a single focus event, you're being told the benefits of product XYZ with no other distractions. The advertisers can use any acceptable ( sometimes unacceptable!) trick in the book to keep you focused on the product and what it can do for you. Simply walking into TESCO and seeing booze on sale TESCO are not telling you anything about the booze, which one is better or worse than any other, they simply sell it if you want it.
Kids are very gullible and will buy anything, or pester parents to buy anything for them. Kids often do not have the logical capacity to make an informed choice, so advertising to kids is very tightly regulated due to the stupidi..., sorry susceptible minds of children.
( Although I do appreciate that as we all know TESCO and their ilk will happily put up cardboard advertising stands, show ads on screens all over the stores, etc, just to shift anything to anyone! )
Surely it'd be a bit pointless targeting drinks ads at under 18s as it's illegal for them to actually buy the stuff?! Yes, I know under 18s do acquire alcohol but I'd imagine it's a rounding error in the sales of any particular brand, and I don't remember having much say in what alcohol I got if I persuaded someone to get some for me. Allegedly.
Only people I know who drink the stuff are in the early twenties (too old now to say what the underage drinking crowds bevy of choice is.
When I was; it was 20-20, Stones, JD&coke, malibu&coke something bubblegum, even chilled red wine*, depending on the crowd....
* goths & vampire fans.
I get the feeling Morgans is the new '&coke' mixer of the nothingmuch clique.
From my vantage point (and I'd guess pretty much everyone here + including ASA fuddy-duddys), the look and feel of the early twenties demographic today is not much different from the not quite 18 group, so what would appeal to the older, legally buying group would certainly be aspirational to the not legally allowed group.
I'm back to my hot ginger wine, as I'm laid up with a cold today...
Rum and Coke was definitely the tipple of choice for many a 14-16 year old when I was that age ( some decades ago). It's a fore-runner of the AlcoPops that the industry would love to market to kids, but that is so well known now that they are watched very carefully for any attempt to draw kids in. So it's hard not to think that making Captain Morgan a 21stC version of a child friendly drink advert is quite deliberate.
"When I was; it was 20-20, Stones, JD&coke, malibu&coke something bubblegum, even chilled red wine*, depending on the crowd...."
You appear to have missed Mirage and Taboo from the list.
You appear to have missed Mirage and Taboo from the list.
Either memory is failing or I never encountered them at the time, sorry....
I also left Buckfast off the list (popular in some areas with that demographic). And cheap-ass cider like white-lightning, was also popular cheap.
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Interesting how times have changed.
When I was at school in the early-/mid-80s the kids were expected to source their own loose-leaf binders to hold work from various classes. I remember there were a number available from WH Smiths with clear branding from different alcohol brands. For a couple of years I carried my chemistry notes around in a whisky branded folder...never a word of complaint or anything from the teachers.
(come to think of it, I think the brand in question might have been Teachers, but I would have bought it because of the reference to alcohol rather than education)
I'll see your JPS pencil case and raise you an early Playboy digital watch
"Snapchat is usually associated with youngsters sharing self-deleting photos with each other,"
You'd think so wouldn't you? Inexplicably, the couple people I've seen that seem to be constantly sending each other snapchats with a seemingly endless variety of filters are like 25-35 years old.