Banned in Browns Britain
This advertisement has been banned after the Advertising Standards Agency received 3 – yes thats 3 complaints about it
It was supposed to echo the classic Take Courage campaigns of yesteryear. But a poster showing a nervous man looking anxiously at a woman trying on a figure-hugging dress - next to the slogan "take Courage my friend" - has been banned by the advertising watchdog for suggesting that beer could increase confidence.
Three complaints were received by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) from people who said the poster implied that the beer would give the man confidence to either make negative comments about the woman or try to take advantage of her.
In its ruling published today the ASA said the combination of the text and the image of the man with an open beer can and a half-empty glass of beer "was likely to be understood by consumers to carry the clear implication that the beer would give the man enough confidence to tell the woman that the dress was unflattering".
The beer's brewer, Bedford-based Wells and Young's, said the Take Courage slogan echoed previous advertising campaigns from the 1950s to the 1980s. However, the ASA ruled: "Although we understood the humorous intention of the scenario, we concluded that the poster breached the code by suggesting that the beer could increase confidence."
This sort of thing should come as no surprise. They banned smoking in pubs - what the government really wants to do is to ban beer as well - for your own good you understand. Blighty really is an utterly spineless place these days
Comments
"Blighty really is an utterly spineless place these days": yes but only because we have collectively failed ourselves and our ancestors in allowing this drift.
Posted by: Bill | April 15, 2009 8:01 AM
I don't know about you, but beer makes me more courageous. There must be something to the phrase 'Dutch Courage' afterall.
Posted by: pdwalker | April 15, 2009 5:07 PM
I used to be able to find Courage in the liquor stores here in the U.S. Not anymore for some reason.
Posted by: Bram | April 16, 2009 4:14 AM
Did Courage change their ale's formula? I remember loving it the first time I went to Blighty (1997), and nearly spitting it out, just a few years later.
Of course, by then I'd discovered Wadworth 6X (the King of Ales), which may have had something to do with it, but even so...
Posted by: Kim du Toit | April 16, 2009 2:35 PM
Does this dress make my ass look fat?
Posted by: Bomber Harris' better half | April 16, 2009 8:44 PM
Can we ban party political broadcasts for suggesting competence?
Posted by: Gareth | April 17, 2009 11:58 AM