Hot Topic
Hawke’s Bay
Further to yesterday’s rant-o-rama on today’s tabling of the Law Commission report on liquor law reforms, here’s an example of how the face of alcohol advertising is changing.
Steinlager Pure just launched a campaign called Pure Futures. It’s intended to find and celebrate Kiwis who are destined to become our country’s success stories.
The website is pulling together a community of supposed “Pure People” who have a vision and want to share it.
You can vote for your favourite stories and Steinlager Pure has a $100,000 scholarship fund to support those with worthy visions.
There are the likes of Pilot magazine founder Andy Pickering; Maria Gill, who’s writing a book to inspire children; and Mark Morrison, who’s starting a charitable trust to introduce people to New Zealand’s national parks and the biodiversity within them.
There’s also Emily Harris, who’s put off a legal career in order to create rooftop gardens around Auckland’s CBD. At 25, she’s just old enough to help Steinlager Pure avoid being accused of marketing to youth, but young enough to lend the brand a slice of hip.
Is this the future of alcohol advertising? There’s no overt brand message within the site, but rather an implied one. There’s no encouragement to drink or even a sniff of an objectionable message. The brand can carefully tread the line between being young enough and not too young.
You'd be hard pressed to get a complaint against this one upheld at the ASA. Even the anti-alcohol lobby groups would have to ease off the pedal with this one.
It’s branded happiness, with a sprinkling of environmental friendliness and hope for the future.
It’s warm and fuzzy, but will it be effective?
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The new face of alcohol advertising
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