Adverts for pure milk vodka banned for 'linking the spirit to sexual activity'

Three adverts for a UK farm’s pure milk vodka have been banned for being socially irresponsible and linking the spirit to sexual activity.

The adverts for Black Cow vodka, invented by Dorset dairy farmer Jason Barber, featured a cartoon drawing of a cow driving a sleigh and the catchline: “Black Cow pure milk vodka. So smooth you can drink it until the cows come home.”

A video advert showed a young man and woman walking slowly through a meadow and glancing at each other suggestively, before a depression appears in some long grass, while the text “Black Cow Pure Milk Vodka” is superimposed over it.

Another video was a parody of the 1989 Accrington Stanley milk advert, featuring the same actor who had appeared in the original as a child, but replicated shot by shot using vodka instead of milk.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received two complaints that the adverts were socially irresponsible for encouraging excessive drinking, were likely to appeal to children, and linked alcohol with sexual activity.

The ASA also challenged whether the Accrington Stanley parody encouraged consumers to adopt unwise styles of drinking and encouraged excessive drinking.

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Black Cow said its vodka was a “super-premium” product and not intended to be consumed in excess.

The ASA said readers were likely to understand the line “So smooth you can drink it until the cows come home” to imply that they could drink more of it, ruling that this was socially irresponsible given the product’s 40% alcohol by volume (ABV), but found it was unlikely to appeal to children.

It also found the meadow advert broke the advertising code by linking alcohol with sexual activity.

In relation to the Accrington Stanley parody, the ASA said: “While we noted that this was a literal recreation of the original advert and that some viewers would recognise the element of satire, we considered that the large quantity of vodka depicted, and the replacement of the empty bottles with full ones, was nonetheless still likely to be understood as implying and encouraging excessive drinking.

“We therefore concluded that the advert was socially irresponsible and breached the Code.”

Banning all three adverts, the ASA told Black Cow to ensure that they “did not encourage excessive drinking or link alcohol to sexual activity”.

Top pic: PA