Accolade Wines has removed PoS marketing its Jam Shed brand as “wine for drinking, not overthinking”, despite a complaint about the material not being upheld by the Portman Group’s Independent Complaints Panel.
The complaint, made by a member of the public, raised concerns the display could encourage irresponsible and immoderate consumption, thereby breaching the Portman Group Code rule 3.2(f).
The IPC acknowledged that the slogan “could be misconstrued as encouragement to drink without due care and attention”.
It said the broader marketing strategy of Jam Shed to simplify the level of complexity in wine “provided a certain level of context to the intended meaning of the line”.
Although there was “nothing else on the marketing material that suggested that a consumer should drink irresponsibly or immoderately”, it warned “the wording was very close to the line of acceptability”.
It concluded, however, the PoS did not breach the Portman Group Code rule 3.2(f).
The panel also considered whether the PoS breached code rule 3.2(g) by encouraging “rapid or ‘down in one’ style of consumption”.
It decided the material “did not contain any cues which suggested a consumer should drink rapidly,” and subsequently did not breach the code.
Despite this, Accolade had “voluntarily removed the display and confirmed it would not use the phrase in future campaigns”, the Portman Group said.
“While the panel didn’t uphold the complaint in this instance, they still considered the wording of the point-of-sale display very close to the line of acceptability,” said IPC chair Rachel Childs.
Accolade Wines’ decision to pull the campaign demonstrated its “commitment to responsible marketing”, Childs added.
The Grocer has approached Accolade Wines for comment.
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