In a Pub News

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) banned an advert for Kopparberg cider this week because they feared it might appeal to under 18s.
In case you haven’t seen it, the ad features a load of people (all aged over 25 incidentally) going to an underground club and dancing to some music. Oh and not a drop of alcohol is in sight until the final frame.
It sounds pretty standard and when I saw the ad myself I did not for one moment think that this would be of any concern to the authorities.
In fact it wasn’t really of any concern to anyone because only one complaint by a viewer was ever made about it. That’s right, one person said they thought it might appeal to under 18s and just like that it is pulled form our screens.
The only basis for doing so, it would appear from reading the ASAs judgement, is that the song was called ‘Kids’ and the band in who performed it, Sleigh Bells, might have a following of under 18s. No matter that they also have a following of over 25s or indeed no matter that most bands will have fans under the age of 18 because that is when most people, if the suits at the ASA can remember that far back, is when people start taking an interest in music.
If music by anyone with a following of under 18s is banned we will be left with adverts played out to a soundtrack of Cliff Richard and surely nobody wants that. Mind you I doubt he’d be that keen on the association with alcohol anyway.
Getting back to the sole complaint though, to me it seems absurd that the views of a solitary moaner are given so much weight when clearly the vast majority of viewers were either fine with the advert or not that bothered in the slightest.
What bothers me is the problem the authorities have with the advertising of alcohol and people being represented enjoying themselves.
Of course we don’t want to encourage young people to start drinking, I’m not advocating that (they will anyway, but that’s not the point). But why lie about the effects of alcohol?
People do drink alcohol to enjoy themselves, whether it is for relaxation at the end of the day, socialising with friends or plucking up the Dutch courage to speak to someone new.
Why else would you drink it if not to enjoy the experience?
To ban adverts showing people having fun for fear young people might follow suit is a form of censorship and propaganda that will do nothing to stop people drinking but merely increase the gap between the authorities and the public perception of the work they do.