Vodka Cruiser has fallen foul of the the Advertising Standards Bureau (ASB) after a social media campaign appeared to use teenage girls to promote its alcopops.
Its parent company, Asahi Premium Beverages, has been slammed by the ASB for appearing to market vodka to young girls while encouraging them to wear glitter under their eyes to mask “the morning after”.
The ASB rejected Asahi’s claims that the model in the post looked over 18 and found it was in breach of the ASB’s rules in the marketing of alcohol.
In its findings, the ASB ruled: “Overall the Board considered that the use of a model who appears under the age of 18 promoting an alcoholic beverage in a manner likely to appeal to children, coupled with the suggestion that heavy consumption of alcohol is acceptable as you can just use glitter to cover your dark circles, is against prevailing community standards on the responsible promotion and consumption of alcohol.”
However, Asahi rejected claims it was marketing the drinks to children, insisting it was aimed at females aged 18-24 and said users of its Instagram page needed to be over 18 to access it.
“We acknowledge that the model used looks under 25 years of age but not under 18 years of age as suggested in the complaint. As such we have taken steps to remove the post from Instagram to ensure compliance with the ABAC code,” Asahi said in its defence.
