Alcohol ads featuring rapper ArrDee banned by watchdog

Ads for alcohol brand Litty Liquor have been banned for featuring the under-25-year-old rapper ArrDee and encouraging excessive and irresponsible drinking.

Two Instagram posts from the Litty Liquor account in December featured photos of ArrDee in a distillery surrounded by bottles of spiced rum.

A third post featured a video of ArrDee in an empty nightclub, trying and rejecting two unidentified brands of rum before he was shown in a distillery mixing liquids, making notes, and testing the results until he was happy.

The video then cut back to the nightclub which became filled with people and loud music, as ArrDee danced away from the camera to join friends on the dance floor.

The final scene showed a box of Litty Liquor’s products, along with the on-screen text “#GETLIT”.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received one complaint that the ads breached advertising rules because they featured someone who was, or seemed to be, under 25, and encouraged excessive and irresponsible consumption of alcohol.

Litty Liquor, also responding on behalf of ArrDee, confirmed that the rapper was under 25 years of age at the time the ads were seen, and apologised for his presence, which they accepted was in breach of the rules.

Litty Liquor and ArrDee said they understood how the phrase “#GETLIT” could have been perceived as promoting excessive and irresponsible alcohol consumption, but said they had intended to promote their products in a responsible and appropriate manner.

They said that they had removed the ads, and would be reviewing their advertising policies and procedures in order to prevent similar issues from occurring in the future.

The ASA said: “We understood that the word ‘lit’ had a long history of being used as a slang term for being drunk, and that it had also become popular within the rap music scene to indicate being intoxicated.

“We noted that in recent years the term ‘lit’ had also been used in rap music to mean that something was exciting, or of an excellent quality.

“However, because the ad was focused on the creation and consumption of an alcoholic drink, and was set in a nightclub and a distillery, we considered that consumers would likely associate the phrase “#GETLIT” … to relate to the consumption of alcohol, and becoming intoxicated.

“We therefore considered that the ad was likely to encourage excessive consumption of alcohol.

“While we welcomed Litty Liquor’s removal of the ad, we concluded that the ad was irresponsible because it encouraged excessive drinking, and breached the code.”