These reports are case summaries of complaints which appeared to raise issues of substance in relation to the interpretation of the ITC Advertising Standards Code. Summary statistics of non-substantive complaints can be found in the full reports which are obtainable from the ITC.
Kaliber
Complaint from: 29 viewers
Background
Two advertisements (which also ran this time last year) for this non-alcoholic beer showed people in jobs apparently drinking alcohol in inappropriate situations. One showed a bus driver drinking from what looked like a beer bottle as passengers boarded the bus; the other portrayed a doctor doing the same while advising a bed-ridden patient on the details of a forthcoming operation.
Both commercials ended with the strap line "only the beer gets drunk".
Issue
Complainants objected variously that the 'bus driver' commercial could encourage drinking and driving; that the act of drinking anything while being in control of a bus was dangerous; that this advertisement portrayed bus drivers in a poor light. Objections to the 'doctor' commercial were confined to the damage that might be done to the reputation of the medical profession.
Many of those who complained about the drink-driving aspect of 'bus driver' were especially concerned about the advertising's effect in the run up to Christmas.
Assessment
The ITC did not consider that the 'bus driver' advertisement was likely to encourage drink-driving. Taken as whole the commercial was clear that the driver was not drinking alcohol and therefore did not condone driving under the influence. Because the weeks before Christmas are a time of particular concern about drink-driving it is, in the ITC's view, only natural that an alcohol-free lager should stress its principal feature.
Whether or not taking a drink (of any sort), or indeed any similar activity, is dangerous when a bus is stopped at a bus stop, this commercial was not in the ITC's opinion likely to promote bad practice among bus drivers. Such peoples' training and professional rules must be assumed to make them aware of proper conduct.
In neither the 'bus driver' or 'doctor' advertisements did the scenarios seem to the ITC to be likely to bring the jobs into disrepute.
Conclusion
Complaints not upheld.
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