ASA Response

A couple of weeks ago I emailed the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) to ask them if there were any additional requirements for information or logos in alcohol advertising. They just got back to me, and this is their response:

Dear Alister,

Thank you for your e-mail to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA). There are not any mandatory labels for alcohol advertisements, but I would recommend you contact The Portman Group for recommendations beyond what the Codes stipulate.

You can find out more about The Portman group here: www.portmangroup.co.uk

Kind regards, Olivia

I followed their advice and checked out The Portman Group. They had a PDF of their guidelines as well as some 'Best Practice' guidelines that are not mandatory but promote a responsible view of alcohol. The PDF of their code is almost exactly the same as the CAP code, just slightly more brief. It is available here:
http://www.portmangroup.co.uk/assets/documents/4th%20Ed%20of%20Code.pdf

Something interesting I pulled from the Best Practice guidelines is the promotion of 'Drink Aware', which is a website that educates and promotes safety in the consumption of alcohol. Companies can (as an option) promote the drink aware website on their labels/marketing to show a responsible attitude to drinking. To show the logos and links in the marketing and on the labels it requires the company contain a free license to do so. As far as I am aware Magners does not have a license for drinkaware as it is not any of their labels or advertising but there is a link to it on their website, so I will not use this in my advertising but instead just use the self regulated 'Enjoy Magners Responsibly' message.

http://www.portmangroup.co.uk/?pid=28&level=3