Channel 4's Haig Whisky advert has 'not breached scheduling guidelines'

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received a complaint that the TV advert was ‘inappropriately scheduled’ when it was shown during the TV show Everybody Loves Raymond​ at 8.30am on 12 April 2017 and suggested the programme was likely to appeal to audiences below the age of 18 years.

Channel 4 disputed this based on ratings from previous shows and Diageo Great Britain provided information to demonstrate that Everybody Loves Raymond​ was mostly viewed by audiences over the age of 18.

In its assessment, the ASA noted that the commercial was for a drink that contained more than 1.2% ABV and should not be broadcast in between programmes aimed at audiences below the age of 18.

However, it concluded that while the episode complained about was broadcast during the school holidays, historical audience data indicated that there was not any correlation between school holidays and considerably more people under the age of 18 watching Everybody Loves Raymond​.

“Because of this we considered that Channel 4 had no reason to think that the specific episode… that had been complained about would have had particular appeal to audiences below the age of 18 prior to the programme being shown,” the ASA ruled.

“We considered that it was appropriate for Channel 4 to have used audience data for previous episodes of Everybody Loves Raymond​ that were broadcast at the same time of day in order to decide where it was appropriate for them to schedule their ads. We, therefore, concluded that the ad had been appropriately scheduled.”