Au Vodka, a British liquor brand, received complaints over its gun-shaped novelty items, which uses a trigger system to “fire” money in night clubs or at parties, ultimately ending with a UK’s alcoholic beverage industry group drawing a line between the product and violent imagery.
Trade body the Wine and Spirit Trade Association (@wstauk) submitted the complaint against @AuVodka’s Gold Gang Money Gun merchandise to the @PortmanGroup https://t.co/lA6CR9sRjA
— The Spirits Business (@spiritsbusiness) August 24, 2023
Au Vodka, according to The Spirit Business, defended its product by saying that consumers “saw it as harmless and inoffensive,” and that it didn’t create a link between the product and real violence.
Despite Au’s defense, including renaming the item “money sprayer,” the Portman Group alcoholic beverage producer trade group’s Independent Complaints Panel found the item’s features “had an indirect association with violent and aggressive behavior due to its similarity to a firearm.”
“Alcohol and guns do not mix, and producers must always avoid such scenarios,” said the panel’s chair Nicola Williams, according to The Spirit Business. “Whilst the panel noted that not all ‘guns’ are intrinsically linked to firearms, there were numerous aspects about this product which, combined, displayed similarities with a real-life firearm, and any association between a firearm and an alcoholic drink is wholly inappropriate.”
If you’re a distributor working on a campaign, you need to be extra-careful about how your product will be perceived. This goes for hard goods and apparel alike, and can be applied to the shape of a product and the design printed on it. Especially when they’re working with companies surrounding alcoholic beverages, distributors must give real thought to how the promos are perceived.
