Brewdog ad banned for promoting beer as ‘solution for loneliness’
A Brewdog advert has been banned by the advertising watchdog for suggesting that one of its beers could be a remedy for boredom, loneliness and frustration.
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that a poster to promote the Scottish brewer’s Wingman IPA beer implied it could be a solution to overcoming several daily problems – from WiFi failure to a friend turning up late – that could “impact people in a negative way”.
The advert, which was in circulation across the UK in May, ran with the headline, “Brewdog. Always Got Your Back”, accompanied by a paragraph that read: “Some things in life go AWOL – WiFi fails, the weather turns hostile, and your buddy’s ‘five minutes’ turns into a full-scale delay. But Wingman? Wingman stands firm. Always on station, always mission-ready, always got your back. Because every great operation deserves a great Wingman.”
Under ASA guidelines, adverts for alcoholic products are not allowed to imply alcohol can help improve negative emotions like suffering and isolation. Nor is it allowed to be positioned as a coping mechanism for potential customers.
Brewdog, which was founded by Aberdeen entrepreneur James Watt, denied the poster implied the session ale gave its drinkers comfort or provided escape from any form of distress in its response to the watchdog. It argued that the scenarios “were clearly framed as mundane, everyday annoyances and not substantive problems requiring resolution”.
The craft ale maker also contested the allegation that they “provided comfort, relief or escape from any form of distress”, and instead that the ad “positioned the product as being of reliable quality, not as a remedy or coping mechanism”.
But the ASA said that while it accepted the brewer’s argument that the annoyances were “mundane and everyday”, they would also likely cause a person to wait “for an outcome outside of their control”.
“The implication was that Wingman was a solution to overcoming those problems that were likely to result in boredom, frustration and potentially loneliness,” it added.
The watchdog banned Brewdog from running the advert again, and warned it against producing any ads at risk of implying that “drinking alcohol could overcome boredom, loneliness or other problems”.
The ruling is the latest of several instances where the Scottish beermaker with a reputation for courting controversy has locked horns with the advertising regulator.
In 2022, an advert promoting a limited edition guava-flavoured beer as counting towards “one of your five-a-day” was barred for misleading consumers. And more recently, it was rapped by the watchdog for being unable to substantiate claims to be “world’s first carbon-negative brewery“.
Responding to its latest dressing down, a spokesman for Brewdog said: “We acknowledge the ASA’s ruling on our recent Wingman advert and we are disappointed with the outcome, which we believe does not reflect the spirit or intent behind the campaign. That said, we won’t be running the ad again.”