A ‘customer review’ of a 2-litre cask of Cruiser Pineapple Passion Punch that was written by a 12 year old on Dan Murphy’s website has been named the worst alcohol ad of 2014-15 by the Alcohol Advertising Review Board (AARB).
A description of the ad, which has since been removed, appeared in the AARB's 2014-15 Annual Report.
The reviewer wrote: “had a sip on my 12th birthday, went off my head gr8 flava wud recemend, gud value fo mone”.
Under the comment was the text: “I would recommend this to a friend”. The reviewer had also awarded the product 5 stars out of 5, and had rated it 5 out of 5 for Enjoyment and 5 out of 5 for Value for Money.
The customer review was posted in August 2014 on Woolworths' Dan Murphy website, and remained on the site until at least November, despite consumer complaints, according to the AARB.
The AARB is administered by health organisations, and its other “alcohol advertising shockers of 2014-15” included alcohol ads placed near schools, alcohol sponsorships of major Australian sports, irresponsible price promotions by Woolworths and Coles, and liquor retailer Facebook pages.
In 2014-15, the AARB received 165 complaints, and of those, 92 determinations upheld complaints in full and 17 in part.
According to the Public Health Association of Australia, as a result of the latest AARB annual report, several federal members of parliament and health groups are calling for legislation on alcohol promotion.
“The alcohol companies defend self-regulation because they know it doesn’t work. Industry self-regulation didn’t work for tobacco and it doesn’t work for alcohol. It’s time to legislate so that there are controls that work,” its CEO Michael Moore said.
Food companies are also in the spotlight over their advertising practices. They are covered by the Responsible Children's Marketing Initiative, a voluntary industry code administered by the Australian Food and Grocery Council.
According to the AFGC's latest compliance report, Mars breached the code 102 times during a three-month period in 2014, accounting for a third of the total number of breaches by the code's 17 signatories.
PepsiCo breached the code 59 times, and Campbell Arnott’s and Coca-Cola both breached it 28 times.
Clare Hughes, nutrition program manager at Cancer Council NSW, described the self-regulatory code as "ineffective" because the total number of breaches had tripled in three years, according to a Fairfax Media report
