Premier Estates Wine ad

Premier Estates Wine is facing a furious backlash over its ‘Taste the Bush’ marketing campaign.

Angry consumers have taken to social media to declare the digital push – the Australian brand’s first advertising campaign – “sexist”, “vulgar” and “childish”. The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has also received a small number of complaints about the digital video campaign.

The ad, which was created by London agency Saatchi Masius, features an elegantly dressed woman extolling the qualities of Premier Estates’ shiraz. Her commentary ends with the phrase: “Australia practically jumps out of the glass – in fact, some say you can almost taste the bush.”

Angry comments on the brand’s Twitter feed have accused Premier Estates of objectifying women, with some declaring they will never buy the wine. A few have defended the ad, with one stating: “Oh for goodness sake get a sense of humour! That really is rather clever”.

Premier Estates has responded to the Twitter backlash with its own comments such as: “Thx for not beating around the bush with that feedback” and “Due to interest in our Bush, we’re giving away five cases!”

The supplier told The Grocer it had wanted a campaign that introduced the brand to consumers “with a bang”.

“The wine industry is bland and stodgy,” said a spokesman. “We wanted to develop a campaign that got people talking - the ad is tongue-in-cheek, and born from classic British humour.”

At time of writing (14 August), advertising watchdog the ASA had received four complaints about the ad. The authority said it would be assessing the complaints before deciding whether to investigate the activity.

When it broke the ad last week, Premier Estate said it expected the video to generate more than 20 million impressions.

At the time, Saatchi Masius executive creative director Surrey Garland said: “This campaign aims to debunk the pompous blandness of the category and as a first for the brand, we wanted to make people laugh – and try the wine.”

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