'Cake Outrage' for Courage as common sense is shunned
Courage beer’s attempt to overturn an absurd ruling by the ASA has failed despite an outpouring of public backing.
The Courage beer advert featured a man sitting on his sofa looking at his wife in a new dress with the sales label still on. The advert infers that the woman would be asking: ‘Does my bum look big in this?’ with the slogan is ‘Take Courage My Friend.’
Deemed to imply that the pint of Courage the man was drinking would give him enough courage to tell the woman the dress was unflattering, the ASA had an apparent humour bypass and has now requested the advert be withdrawn. This was after receiving just three complaints and despite hundreds of letter of support to the brewers Wells and Young’s. Marketing director, Chris Lewis says: “Every man with any life experience knows that faced with this situation, the correct answer to this infamous question is ‘No!’ We are incredibly disappointed that our appeal has failed.”
The brewery is now responding to the ruling with a tongue-in-cheek remake of the advert with an anagram of the “Take Courage” line, “Cake Outrage” and taking the one-off advert on a tour of the capital city.
Lewis says: “The ruling is nonsense, and we are responding with an equally nonsensical poster, having a bit of fun at the ASA’s expense. The beer is called Courage and the line “Take Courage” has been used for over 50 years with no complaints! This is a sad day for common sense.”
The poster was initially banned in April and received an unprecedented amount of international media coverage, with famous names lending their support to the cause. On BBC 2’s Newsnight, out-spoken presenter, Jeremy Paxman, challenged the ASA’s own standards. Speaking to the ASA’s chairman, he said: “Your clause 56.8 says, advertising should not suggest that any alcoholic drinks can change moods or enhance confidence etc. In that case all the government’s Christmas drink driving campaigns are invalid aren’t they?”
Lewis adds: “We are a responsible brewer and highly respect the ASA and their role in overseeing our advertising codes. But on this occasion, they got it wrong. They don’t seem to represent public feeling. For example, recently an advert for an oven cleaner* received 700 complaints from the public for being viewed as sexist but the ad in question was deemed acceptable by the ASA. There are clearly issues of interpreting the code and they just don’t seem to be in tune with the thoughts of everyday people.”
