Alcohol regulators in the UK don’t want women to think that a few drinks can help them seduce an attractive man. From Sky News:

Drinks companies have been ordered to use uglier men in their advertising campaigns.

The Advertising Standards Authority believes “balding” and “paunchy” men would be less likely to encourage women to drink to achieve social success.

The new advertising code stresses that links must not be made between alcohol and seduction.

(In the case of a proposed new ad) … The industry regulator instructed the firm: “We would advise that the man in the picture should be unattractive - ie overweight, middle-aged, balding etc.”

“In its current form we consider that the ad is in danger of implying that the drink may bring sexual/social success, because the man in question looks quite attractive and desirable to the girls.

“If the man was clearly unattractive, we think that this implication would be removed from the ad.”

The company, Lambrini, develops drinks targeted at women, with ads tag-lined “Girls just want to have fun.” The regulator’s creative concept is certainly original: having a few drinks wins a twenty-something babe (see the ads) an aging, fat, bald guy. The only problem is that it may not actually appeal to the target audience … which by my quick analysis would be a problem for an ad actually intended to sell product.

In fact, if the ad were to run, it might encourage overconsumption of alcohol on the part of young women seeking to unload their inhibitions in order to land a dreamy … Jason Alexander type?! Not quite what the regulators want!

We can’t wait to see what happens when the sex roles are reversed and we see a guy and his buddy at a bar catch the eye of a Madeline Albright clone. That’ll get them drinking.

—
(And since when did “middle-aged” become synonymous with “unattractive?”)

Hat tip: Hit and Run

Technorati Tags: political correctness, beer, advertising

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 27th, 2005 at 11:24 am by A Senior Administration Official and is filed under Funny ... to us, Politically Correct ... and stupid. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.