Creepy scrumpy is in very bad taste

A SICK cider brand that plays on “suicide” has been blasted.

Bearded Brewery’s 7.8% Suicyder features a skull, a hanging rope and the slogan: “Juice from the noose.”

Alcohol watchdogs upheld a complaint and said the branding created a “direct link between suicide, alcohol and dangerous behaviour”.

Trade body the Portman Group said: “It is clearly irresponsible of the Bearded Brewery to produce and market a cider with a brand name that plays on the word ‘suicide,’ uses iconography like a rope noose that is associated with suicide and uses the strapline ‘Juice from the noose.’

Alert

“Given that the highest risk group for suicide is men aged 25-34, I find the targeting and brand positioning of Suicyder by the Bearded Brewery to be reckless and dangerous in the extreme.”

Portman issued a “Retailer Alert Bulletin” asking shops not to reorder the sinister scrumpy from the brewery in Newquay, Cornwall.

A spokesman said it was “wholly inappropriate to link a product’s name and imagery to the tragic act of the word suicide”. She added: “I hope that this reminds producers of their responsibilities when designing packaging and naming products.”

Suicyder’s makers said the noose reflected the owner’s previous job as a tree surgeon, in which ropes are used to fell trees.

The brewery also pointed out it had supported several charities, including the Campaign Against Living Miserably (CALM).

But the panel said customers would need to be aware of this inside knowledge to “displace the main connotation portrayed by the product name and imagery on the front label”.

Portman said the connection to CALM suggested the company knew full well there was a link between the name Suicyder and suicide.