DB beer complaint upheld

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COMPLAINT UPHELD: Black and white footage of waterfront rioters was said by the advertiser and its agency Colenso BBDO to portray reaction to an increase in tax on imported beer.

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A beer commercial which looked too much like a historical documentary has been criticised by the Advertising Standards Complaints Board and the version will be barred from broadcast.

The television and cinema campaign supported a relaunch of Dominion Breweries' DB Export branded beer by telling the story of former DB brewer Morton Coutts' attempt to brew the world's best beer in New Zealand.

The campaign has attracted 27 complaints since October last year, but only the most recent decision has been partly upheld by the advertisers' self-regulatory body after a split decision.

The latest complainant objected to the use of real footage of the 1951 waterfront dispute to illustrate violent protests that the advertisement says took place after Arnold Nordemeyer's ''Black Budget'' of 1958.

Black and white footage of waterfront rioters was said by the advertiser and its agency Colenso BBDO to portray reaction to an increase in tax on imported beer.

A majority of the complaints board considered the television and cinema advertisements to be in a ''documentary type style, achieved by the use of the contrasting black and white screen-shots, the music, and the accompanying authoritative narration''.

When coupled with the use of the actual footage of the riots, from a different historical event, the ad gave the impression that ''the advertisements were portraying a credible and realistic depiction of history'', said the board's decision.

''The majority of the complaints board was of the view that the television and cinema advertisements ... were likely to mislead and deceive consumers given the realistic and accurate depiction of history conveyed in the advertisements.''

A minority on the board said advertisers were clearly speaking from the position of a brewery and were using ''creative license'' to portray the story and that the use of the footage was ''one way of illustrating the discontent that the brewery perceived was felt at the time with regard to the 1958 Black Budget''.

However two newspaper advertisements from the same campaign were deemed suitable by the board as they adequately indicated that they were subjective views about historical events from the advertiser.

- BusinessDay.co.nz