Does the ABAC Adjudication Panel takes into account the 5 Ps (Product, Price, Placement, Promotion, People)?
Yes and No. It takes into account ‘Promotion’ and ‘Placement’, but not the other 3 Ps The Code is designed to regulate marketing communications, and whether they are consistent with the ABAC standards. So ‘Promotion’ is a big one that is focussed on. ‘Placement’ is taken into account in terms of TV advertisements not being allowed to be placed during children’s viewing times, and requiring age gate controls to be applied to social media, and requirements about % of viewers of other advertisements being over 18. Placement was also relevant in the recent Heineken 0.0 advert – which was OK’d by pre-vetting in a print magazine, but then held not to be OK by the Adjudication Tribunal on an outdoor advertisement where people would be driving quickly past and not have a chance to read the fine print. When the complaint has related to a product’s packaging, a number of producers have tried to rely on ‘Placement’ being effectively within a physically age-gated place, being the bottle shop or pub, where minors are not allowed to be present. ABAC have regularly refused to accept this. (Certainly some licensed cafes and other establishments will permit minors to be in the area where alcohol is displayed and sold.) But Price, Product and People are not relevant. Even though minors are unlikely to enjoy the taste of beer on most occasions, and certainly unlikely to appreciate say a barley wine or a Black, this is not relevant in front of ABAC. The same goes if a can or bottle was priced at $100 – this would be irrelevant for ABAC purposes.
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AuthorLucinda Schmidt is a freelance journalist, trade mark administrator, and former intellectual property lawyer. Archives
March 2020
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