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Posts on the brand’s TikTok account stated:
Post 1:
A video post featured a can of Four Loko being opened and poured into a glass. The person who poured the drink had a scrunchie on their arm and they remove the scrunchie which is also a cover for their drink, and put the cover over the glass, inserting a straw.
Wording on the post stated:
“Gorgeous gorgeous girls & guys. Protect ya tings with our #safescrunchie #foryou #fourloko #fourlokostories #fyp #pridemonth”
A sample of other posts were viewed on the account:
Post 2:
A video post reposted by the advertisers featured two men in a kitchen with two glasses of Four Loko on a counter and one man is shown holding a can. The two men raise their glass to each other and both take a drink from their glasses. After taking a sip one asks the other what they think of the drink and after replying, the video jumps to the two men ‘fighting’ each other with one man falling to the ground.
The voiceover stated:
“Hi everybody, today me and [name] are going to testing out the new Four Loko tropical flavour. Are you excited for this? Let’s do this, let’s f*** [expletive used] do this. Mmm what do you think of that? Really nice, really tropical.”
Wording on the post stated:
“Cheers Bro. #foryou #fourloko #fourlokostories #summer”
Post 3:
A video post reposted by the advertisers featured a women opening a Four Loko cooler, taking out cans of Four Loko, a hat and condoms. The girl is then shown wearing the hat and holding a can of Four Loko while lip syncing to a voiceover. The video includes the following on screen text: “POV: this arrives at your door on a Friday afternoon”.
Wording on the post stated:
“They call us the postman, cause we deliver. Shoutout [name redacted by ASAI] #fourloko #fourlokostories #fourlokochallenge #foryou #foryoupage #fyp
Post 4:
A video post featured a man sitting at a table with two shots, two cans of Four Loko stacked on top of each other with a scissors sellotaped to the two cans and another can on the table. The man was shown playing ‘rock, paper, scissors’ against the scissors where he is shown playing ‘paper’ on both occasions, downing each shot after losing the game.
Wording on the post stated:
“Need to switch it up with a rock every now and again… #fourloko #foryou #foryoupage #hangover #party”
Post 5:
A video post of a Four Loko cooler being opened and the contents being taken out. Contents shown included 6 cans of Four Loko, a hat, a small bottle of sunscreen, condoms and a sweet.
Wording on the post stated:
“You asked and we answered. Our two new EPIC flavours out in select stores now. #fourloko #foryou #fyp #fourlokostories #hangover #party
Complaint
Post 1:
The complainant objected to Post 1 as no responsibility message had been included.
Posts 2 – 5:
The ASAI Executive did not consider that the content on the advertisers TikTok account was in conformity with the alcohol rules of the Code. They referred the advertisers to Posts 2 to 5 as a sample of content from the page and asked for their comments on the overall compliance of the content of the page and details of procedures in place to ensure compliance of the content.
Response
Post 1:
The advertisers were thankful for the complaint being brought to light and said that they always aimed to be compliant with ASAI guidelines and in view of this, they have challenged their posting process and their social agency around not using responsible drinking taglines on TikTok. They have confirmed that all future social posts would contain the responsible drinking tagline and that a revised two-step approval process for social posts would be implemented immediately to ensure that this was the case.
They also advised that they would be rebranding the page to a Four Loko UK only page with a UK audience and that it would be controlled by their UK team.
Posts 2 – 5:
The advertisers again confirmed that all future social media posts would contain the responsible drinking tagline. Since receiving the concerns associated with the posts, the Irish brand team of Four Loko conducted a review of their involvement with the TikTok account in question and their presence on the TikTok platform at large. They said that the concerns raised coupled with their desire not to incur future complaints has meant that the Irish Four Loko team have decided to withdraw their participation from the TikTok social media platform entirely and they have relinquished all control of the TikTok account, and it has since been rebranded and restructured as a UK platform. They said that the account would now communication with UK audiences and demographics and would comply with all UK laws, regulations and codes surrounding marketing and advertising.
They said that while the account was no longer associated with their Irish team, they had requested that their UK colleagues perform three actions, as a gesture of good faith, to ensure Four Loko Ireland remained in good standing with the ASAI.
1 Delete Posts #2, #3, #4, #5
2 Perform an audit of all existing UK social media channels & permanently delete any posts that might be in stark contrast to the Irish Code, including many of the articles outlined (i.e. Encouraging drinking, over-indulgence)
3 Removing any problematic hashtags (i.e. #Hangover) from posts published on the UK Channel & ensuring all posts are accompanied by a #DrinkResponsibly message
They said that they hoped the above steps satisfied the ASAI Executive’s recommendation and ensured that Four Loko Ireland’s brand communications remain compliant with the Advertising Standards Authority for Ireland.
Conclusion
Complaints Upheld
The Complaints Committee considered the detail of the complaint and the advertisers’ response.
Post 1:
The Committee noted the undertaking by the advertisers in regard to future social media content. The Committee referred to the requirement of the Code that marketing communications for alcohol should include a responsibility message to drink alcohol responsibly (9.4). In the absence of a responsibility message, the Committee considered that the post was in breach of the Code.
Posts 2 – 5:
The Complaints Committee noted that the sample posts had not included the responsibility messaging. In noting the Code requirements in the alcohol section of the Code, they expressed concern that the advertisers had reposted or posted content which depicted juvenile behaviour (mock fighting), people who appeared under 25, solitary drinking and drinking games and the use of hashtags which implied over consumption (hangover, party in association with hangover). In light of the lack of a responsibility message, the behaviours depicted, and the hashtags used, the Committee considered that the re-posting of user generated content in Posts 2 and 3, and the posting by the brand of content in Posts 4 and 5, was not in compliance with the Code.
Action Required: As the advertising had been amended or withdrawn, no further action required.
