Day: October 29, 2012

The PC brigade have been out in force over the last week. Earlier this weekend I posted about Brighton and Hove Council who plan to do away with the formal address title of Mr., Mrs., Ms. and Miss to satisfy a few complaints from their transgender residents. Now they, the PC Brigade, have focussed their narrow vision lenses on the logo being used on a range of farm produce, in particular an organic ale.

The beer is made by 1979 F1 world champion Jody Scheckter and the offending logo is based on a crayon picture created by his 4 year old son. Hi son is now 19.

According to alcohol watchdogs this logo could incite young children to drink beer.

Earlier this year a complaint was made to industry-funded watchdog the Portman Group on the basis that the child’s drawing on the label of Laverstoke’s alcoholic products was the same image used on its labels for apple juice.
Portman says this breaches marketing rules because it could appeal to children.

Portman Group rulings carry huge weight. High street chains notified that a product is in breach of the code have three months to clear the item from shelves. If they fail to do so, they may face legal action by trading standards and could lose their alcohol trading licences.

These folks just aren’t in the real world. The young children that are likely to be attracted to a drink purely based on the Laverstoke logo are not old enough to buy it and would appear obviously so to any retailer. The young “underage” kids that are getting regularly tanked up in our children’s playgrounds all over the country are not buying farm produced organic real ales. They are buying cheap lagers and ciders. In fact many of them are drinking vodka and vodka based alcopops which don’t have child like logos.

Clamping down on Laverstoke and their retailers will not do anything to reduce underage drinking but will provide the Portman Group with another victim to boost their statistics indicating that they are doing a good job.

F1 racing star’s organic ale is banned… because his son designed the label | Mail Online.