Stella Artois rapped over 'family' advert
The firm behind Stella Artois was criticised by the UK advertising watchdog today for implying one family had brewed the lager for the past 600 years.
A national press wraparound advert for the beer stated: “A family dedicated to brewing for six centuries.”
InBev UK – the firm behind the Stella Artois brand – said the reference to “family” meant to give an overall impression of the Artois heritage and its “family” of beers.
But the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said it wrongly implied a single family had been involved in brewing the lager for 600 years.
After an investigation, the ASA said the claim breached advertising rules relating to truthfulness and substantiation.
The watchdog said Artois is no longer a family-owned brand.
But readers were likely to interpret the claim to mean that “... one family of common ancestry had been involved in the brewing of Stella Artois for six centuries”, the ASA ruled.
The watchdog told InBev to remove the claim “A family dedicated to brewing for six centuries”.
InBev said the advert’s aim had been to emphasise the “continuity of tradition and care” found in the Artois family of beers.
It had not meant to suggest that just one family of “common ancestry” had brewed the Artois beers for six centuries, the firm said.
