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Brands & Merch
Heineken song choice criticised
By CMU Editorial | Published on Wednesday 6 July 2011
Drinks firm Heineken has been forced to remove one of the songs it had selected for a Spotify-based marketing campaign for its Kronenbourg 1664 brand after booze industry marketing watchdog the Portman Group upheld a complaint that it encouraged binge drinking.
Ironically, the offending Kronenbourg 1664 campaign operated under the strapline “slow the pace”, and suggested consumers should go slow when consuming the advertiser’s product, which doesn’t sound like a binge to me. The drinks firm’s marketeers selected chilled out cover versions of songs that are normally a bit raucous.
Unfortunately, one of the tracks selected was an albeit rather fine Nouvelle Vague cover of the Dead Kennedys track ‘Too Drunk To Fuck’. A complainer felt that was inappropriate for any marketing campaign promoting a lager brand and The Portman Group – while recognising Team Heineken did not intend to promote drinking to excess – upheld the complaint.
Said Portman Group boss David Poley: “This demonstrates just how careful companies have to be when marketing alcohol. We were pleased that the company took immediate action to remove the track from the playlist as soon as the complaint was brought to its attention. Heineken has also introduced more rigorous approval procedures as a result”.
