A BrewDog poster has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) after it breached rules by implying alcohol could overcome boredom, loneliness and other problems.
A poster seen on 12 May 2025, promoting the brewer’s Wingman Session IPA, featured the text: “Some things in life go AWOL – WiFi fails, the weather turns hostile, and your buddy’s ‘five minutes’ turns into a full-scale delay. But Wingman? Wingman stands firm. Always on station, always mission-ready, always got your back. Because every great operation deserves a great Wingman”.
The complainant believed the ad implied that alcohol was a remedy for disappointment, suffering and isolation, and challenged whether it breached the Cap Code.
The CAP code, enforced by the ASA, outlines the regulations for non-broadcast advertisements, sales promotions and direct marketing communications.
It states marketing communications must not imply that drinking alcohol can overcome boredom, loneliness or other problems.
BrewDog said it did not believe the ad breached the Code.The ad did not suggest that alcohol was a solution to any form of personal, emotional or psychological difficulty, it argued.
“The scenarios referenced in the ad – WiFi outages, bad weather and a friend running late – were clearly framed as mundane, everyday annoyances and not substantive problems requiring resolution,” it said.
The brewer challenged the phrase “always got your back” and said it is a “widely used idiom denoting reliability and consistency, not emotional support or problem-solving”.
Global, the media owner, said they removed the ad from their sites, despite having received no complaints.
Responding to the complaint, the ASA claimed the scenarios presented were real-life problems that were likely to impact people in a negative way.
“The implication was that Wingman was a solution to overcoming those problems that were likely to result in boredom, frustration and potentially loneliness,” it said.
For these reasons, the ad implied that drinking alcohol could overcome boredom, loneliness or other problems and breached the code.
The ASA said the ad must not appear again and warned BrewDog to ensure it does not make the same breach in future ads.
“We acknowledge the ASA’s ruling on our recent Wingman advert and we are disappointed with the outcome, which we believe does not reflect the spirit or intent behind the campaign. That said, we won’t be running the ad again,” said a spokesperson for BrewDog.
No comments yet