Olympian insists beer campaign ‘truthful’
Lincoln Tan
Olympic gold medallist Eric Murray says he “respects the ruling” to remove him from parts of a beer campaign by an advertising watchdog.
But he insists the campaign was “truthful” and not misleading.
“All I can say is I respect the ruling for the code of heroes of the young,” Murray told the Herald yesterday morning.
“We were always just getting the message across of the nutritional information now available on beer in NZ, which is why the campaign is still on air as it’s truthful and not misleading.”
Murray was part of a campaign called Beer the Beautiful Truth that featured a number of New Zealand celebrities talking about the nutritional content in beer.
Alcohol Healthwatch laid the complaint with the Advertising Standards Authority expressing concern that Murray was a hero to young people and was effectively being used to encourage minors to drink alcohol. He was removed from parts of the campaign after the ASA ruled he was “a hero of the young”.
“I am still part of the campaign, just not during restricted age group times of targeted age group demographic on any internet-based medium,” Murray said.
Alcohol Healthwatch had raised concerns that by showing Murray consuming alcohol to celebrate the birth of his child, it implied the success of a social occasion was dependent on alcohol.
The ASA complaints board agreed that Murray was a hero of the young and the Brewers Association has taken steps to address the concerns.
“We accept the authority’s ruling on this aspect of the complaint,” the association said in a statement.
“We have already taken steps to ensure that any campaign material featuring Eric has been removed from unrestricted areas.”
Alcohol Healthwatch executive director Dr Nicki Jackson said Murray featured prominently in the DB and Lion campaign while at the same time proactively engaging directly with young people through his work in New Zealand schools.
“Research shows that the more adolescents are exposed to alcohol advertising, the more likely they are to drink heavily. This flows on to a range of social and health problems, including a higher chance of dropping out of school and a higher risk of depression and suicide.”
Jackson said this was just one example of many illustrating the failure of an alcohol industry selfregulation approach to advertising complaints.