Advertisment
The poster featured an image of a young woman with a cocktail glass in her hand, the headline stated:
“For the best nights out,
go to town”.
The footnote at the bottom of the poster read:
“Dublin has it all, discover more on dublintown.ie”
The bottom right hand corner of the poster featured the following text:
“LUASCROSSCITY
Bringing the city together”
Complaint
The complainant queried why an advertisement for Luas Cross City had featured a woman sitting in a bar on her own with a colourful Cocktail drink in her hand. He considered that the message contained within the advertisement was that for a good night out it was necessary to go into town and have a drink.
The complainant considered the advertisement to be in breach of the Alcohol Provisions of the Code.
Response
The advertisers said the Advertising Campaign had been created because of the concerns raised by businesses and retailers throughout the City who had expressed concerns that they were losing business as the on-going Luas works did not encourage people to frequent the City Centre.
The advertisers said in order to help the Traders encourage people back into the City they agreed to run a campaign promoting the City Centre. The campaign featured 4 x creatives, covering the 4 main areas that they had been told had suffered as a result of the Luas works; i.e. shopping, family days out, nights out, and the general buzz of the City. The tagline used for the Campaign was “Go to Town”, which appeared on all marketing communications.
The advertisers said the poster referenced by the complainant “For the best nights out, go to town” had been created to encourage people back into the City Centre. The image had never been intended to portray someone drinking on their own, it had been used to
show someone in a crowd, who had seen a friend arriving and was acknowledging them. The drink in the woman’s hand had been colourful to represent the Luas green and red lines. They said the same treatment had been used in the other creatives to highlight a guitar, a clothes hanger and an ice cream.
In conclusion the advertisers said that Luas Cross City were not part of the Drinks Industry, and the intention behind their advertising had not been to promote alcohol consumption but rather, to promote Dublin City Centre as a place to shop, eat, drink, enjoy a family day out alongside the unique buzz the City had to offer.
Conclusion
Complaint not upheld.
The Committee noted the purpose of the advertising campaign was to encourage consumers back into the City Centre to partake of the various activities that were available there. Taking account of the text “Dublin has it all, discover more on dublintown.ie”, the Committee did not consider that the advertisement was encouraging excessive or solitary drinking, rather it was suggesting that the City Centre was a good place to have an enjoyable night out. They concluded that that no breach of the Code was involved.
No further action was required in this case.
