Wine bar chain Corney & Barrow has been censored by the ad watchdog after it ran an email campaign which promoted office meetings at its bars, which included the line: “enjoy a glass of Beaujolais Nouveau with a full English breakfast for £10”.
The email also stated: “Forget boring team meetings in the office. Book a Beaujolais breakfast with C&B. We guarantee your meeting minutes will be taken to a whole new level!”.
But one complainant to the ASA challenged whether the ad was irresponsible because it encouraged readers to drink alcohol with breakfast, to make work meetings more interesting.
In response, Corney & Barrow Wine Bars (C&B) said the complaint that they were encouraging people to drink alcohol with breakfast was a broad and sweeping statement which they strongly refuted. It said the offer related to a single annual event and was for a single, small-sized glass of wine which was available only when a customer purchased a full English breakfast, which would offset the effects of the alcohol.
The company also pointed out that the ad included the statement Please drink responsibly and believed there was nothing in the ad that encouraged irresponsible drinking.
But the ASA said the email encouraged an irresponsible drinking practice. Concluding that the ad was socially irresponsible, the authoirty ruled that the ad must not appear again in its current form.
