The UK division of Accolade Wines has had a complaint about an advert for its Jam Shed brand dismissed.
The point of sale material, which features the tagline ‘wine for drinking, not overthinking’, was brought to the attention of the Portman Group’s Independent Complaints Panel by a member of the public in the country. The individual said the phrase could be seen to “encourage irresponsible and immoderate consumption”, although the panel chose not to uphold the complaint.
Despite the outcome, the panel, which uses the responsible alcohol marketing organisation’s code of practice as its decision making basis, warned Accolade that the phrasing carried “an element of ambiguity which could have been made clearer as to the intended meaning of ‘overthinking'”.
Panel chair Rachel Childs said: “While the panel didn’t uphold the complaint in this instance, they still considered the wording of the point-of-sale display very close to the line of acceptability. It’s important for producers to be aware that ambiguous marketing could lead to unintentional breaches of the code.”
Accolade has removed the campaign voluntarily.
Almost four months ago, the brand owner confirmed its intention to acquire almost all of Pernod Ricard’s wine assets. The news was followed six weeks later by the departure of CEO Robert Foye after four years with the privately-owned group..
