Heineken stole TV ads, claims brewer George Gale

Hampshire brewer George Gale claims it has had its advertising campaign stolen by Heineken.

Gales claims that a current TV advertising campaign run by Heineken bears more than a passing resemblance to one of its own previous campaigns.

The Heineken advert features a rugby match being played out on a pitch and mirrored by the action in the pub, with a customer using a peanut to play a game of bar-top rugby - a theme which featured in Gales' advertising campaign for its popular GB ale last year.

The Gales' advertising campaign ran on Meridian TV during the Rugby World Cup last year and again during highlights of the Rugby Six Nations Tournament this year. It was aimed at a target market of ABC1 males - as is the latest advert for Heineken.

Gales' managing director Nigel Atkinson said he was not planning to take legal action over the advert but would be contacting brand owner Interbrew, which bought Whitbread's brewing arm earlier this year, to discuss the similarity.

He said: "If you look at the two ads it really is quite incredible. I will pick it up with them but on the other hand I am delighted. I think it is extremely flattering that one of the world's largest brewers has copied one of our adverts."

Atkinson said he had also approached Whitbread earlier this year over the similarity between its GB lager brand and Gales' GB ale brand which was launched in May this year (The Publican Newspaper, May 22). No legal action had been taken on that occasion either.

In a statement, a spokesman for Interbrew said: "We were interested to hear about Gales' regional advertising for its GB real ale but, unfortunately, we have not seen the executions and therefore are not in a position to comment on any alleged specific similarities to the national Heineken Cup advertising campaign.

"However any similarities between the current Heineken advertising and any other are purely coincidental."

He added that Heineken had a strong association with rugby for over a decade.

Guinness faced problems two years ago when it was accused of copying a film for a television advert.

Film director Mehdi Norowzian claimed the Guinness advert Anticipation, featuring a man dancing around a pint of Guinness, copied his own work Joy.