Global Brands hits out at ASA's ruling on Hooch

The promotional video featured Vine star and YouTuber Joe Charman holding three bottles of the alcopop by the side of a swimming pool before running up and jumping onto an inflatable in the water to deliver the drinks to his friends.

But the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) upheld a complaint that the ad depicted Charman, whose tagline is “Yeah I got skills… what you gonna do about it?” behaving in a ‘juvenile’ manner that would likely appeal to under-18s and therefore breached the code on the marketing of alcohol. The ad was posted on Charman’s Facebook page.

'Extremely disappointed'​

In a statement, Christian Sarginson, Global Brands senior brand manager, said the company was "extremely disappointed" with the decision.

“Global Brands went through a rigorous process when selecting social media influencers to work with; utilising all available resources and data to ensure the audience was well within the accepted boundaries for alcohol advertising,” he declared.

“Unfortunately, despite the data provided and the overwhelmingly positive response, the one solitary complaint has been upheld and we have been asked to remove this particular piece. This is the first complaint ever received by the company. Global Brands is a code signatory of the Portman Group, supports the drinkaware foundation and prides itself on its responsible advertising.”

Global Brands said Charman’s Facebook page showed him appearing to achieve seemingly impossible feats of skill, but his tricks did not feature ‘juvenile or reckless’ behaviour.

Juvenile behaviour​

Charman insisted his skills-related clips were "not real or achievable", adding they were intended to "entertain, not to promote juvenile behaviour".

“We considered that showing Joe Charman, who was the main focus of the ad, carrying out a stunt using a swimming pool inflatable depicted behaviour likely to be regarded as juvenile, and therefore likely to be of particular appeal to under-18s,” the ASA stated in its ruling.

“We told Global Brands Ltd [trading as] Hooch to ensure that those playing a significant role in their future ads were not shown behaving in an adolescent or juvenile manner.”