The advertising watchdog has laid into wholesaler The Gin Lab for irresponsibly promoting alcohol on its Facebook page after a complaint from Alcohol Concern. The charity took umbrage with a range of humorous posts the wholesaler has put up in January relating to gin. In the first an image showed a banana and a gin and tonic with text stating: “A banana 103 calories… Gin…

The French Wines with Style campaign has put digital marketing at the heart of its 2014 campaign in a bid to show off the best Gallic wines to increasingly web-savvy consumers. The campaign, backed by France Agri Mer, has launched a website and created a Facebook page to champion French wine and lifestyle. Fans can enjoy a series of stylish videos featuring the campaign’s ambassador,…

Current rules governing the drinks industry’s use of social media may not be fit for purpose, according to a concerned supplier. Hi-Spirits has fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Agency after Facebook pages for its Fireball and Antica sambuca brands were found to have breached the ASA code. But Jeremy Hill, chairman of Hi-Spirits, said the code was created to monitor more traditional forms of…

Nyetimber aims to add sparkle to this year’s Valentine’s Day with a Facebook campaign called Celebrating British Romance. Every day from February 1-13 the English sparkling wine producer will give away a bottle of its Rosé 2008 via a competition on its Facebook page.   And one lucky consumer will win a romantic meal for two on the big day, prepared by…

Alcohol suppliers have been slammed for using Facebook to encourage drinking in a two-pronged attack from the chairman of the Alcohol Health Alliance and a former president of the Royal College of Physicians. Professor Sir Ian Gilmore and Dr Adrian Bonner, now an addiction specialist at the University of Kent, accused the industry of failing in its Responsibility Deal. The deal is designed to “foster…

The photos in question appeared to show young adults with multiple drinks as well as young adults with drinks and car keys. Complaints also suggested the people in the images didn’t look over 25, which is part of the Committees of Advertising Practice (CAP) Code that must be adhered to by alcohol advertisers. Hi Spirits told the ASA that the “photographs were not advertising, nor…

It’s easy to see social media as a form of free advertising, a way for brand owners and retailers to broadcast their good points to the world without having to pay a middle man in the form of a newspaper, TV station or billboard company. It’s also easy to forget the conversation bit of being “part of the conversation”, the clichéd phrase that social media…