Kronenbourg 1664: a French beer (*but not brewed in France)
Mon dieu. Why do these suits who run the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) have to be so darn literal? In a recent ruling the ASA slapped Heineken UK on the wrist for saying (or rather implying) in its advertising that Kronenbourg 1664 on sale in the UK is brewed in France.
On 31 August 2011 the ASA told Heineken not to use an ad again which had appeared in the UK press. It had featured a picture of a glass of Kronenbourg 1664 alongside the headline "From the country that believes in the lunch (two and a half) hour." The text underneath stated "The French are famous for many things, hurrying isn’t one of them. So naturally a beer from Strasbourg, Eastern France is made rather slowly. From a patient approach to hop growing, to the delicate handling of the drying procedure, not one part of the brewing process is rushed. Make sure the drinking process is the same".
The ASA found the ad misleading as it implied that the whole process of making the beer, from hop growing to the finished product, took place in eastern France.
Heineken, in their response to the complaint, had gone for a two-pronged defence: the first line of argument feebly tried to underline the product’s French provenance by pointing out that French Strisselspalt hops were used for brewing Kronenbourg (as if that made the beer automatically French) whereas the second argument played to the consumers’ intelligence, saying that consumers know to distinguish between the provenance of a brand of beer, as referred to in the ad, and the location where that beer was brewed.
The long and short is that the ASA was not convinced by Heineken’s defence.
The ruling shows how far beer marketing can go in making claims about foreign provenance before the ASA draws the line.
Belgian Stella, American Budweiser and Australian Foster’s – you watch out.
Sure, the whole issue will soon be forgotten. What will continue to irk Heineken though is that they got told off by the ASA over a brand which they don’t even own. Kronenbourg is owned by Carlsberg, but the UK side of it ended up with Heineken when they took over S&N’s British business.
