An ad campaign for celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay’s gin has been banned by the UK watchdog after it made some rather bizarre nutritional claims.
The fiery 55-year-old chef partnered with Scottish distiller Eden Mill last year to market his eponymous Ramsay’s Gin. He’d previously spruiked rival Gordon’s Gin.
However, a post on Eden Mill’s Facebook and Instagram page quickly caught the attention of the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it made some rather dubious nutritional claims.
The post, published on both channels on 20 March 2022, featured an image of the gin bottle with a caption that focused on its use of honeyberries.
The text claimed: “Our honeyberries are grown in fields a few miles away from the distillery in Cupar. Here, the farmer follows a philosophy of natural growth meaning the honeyberries retain the rich flavours and micro-nutrients that come from Scotland’s wonderful terroir.
“With more antioxidants than blueberries, more potassium than bananas, more vitamin C than oranges and a flavour like a mixture of blueberry, plum and grape, these might be the tastiest honeyberries in the world.”
ASA decided Eden Mill’s claims were misleading because consumers could be led to believe that by drinking gin they’d get the same benefits of eating fresh fruit.
It also noted that the gin’s claim to have micro-nutrients would lead customers to think the product has a beneficial nutritional property.
Under the UK advertising code the only permitted nutrition claims that are allowed to be made are that products are “low alcohol”, “reduced alcohol” or “reduced energy”.
As such, the ASA ruled that the ads must not appear again in that form.
Eden Mills said it would comply with the ban and said the ads had only been posted once and would not be used again in any media channels.
Furthermore, the distiller noted that at the time of the posts the business was undergoing “significant change”, which resulted in the ads not being caught by their usual due diligence.
In its findings, the ASA said: “While we welcomed the action Ramsay’s Gin had taken to withdraw the ads we concluded the ads breached the [advertising] code. The ads must not appear again in the form complained of. We told Eden Mill Distillery, which trades as Ramsay’s Gin, not to make non-permitted nutrition claims about alcoholic drinks.”
