Stefaans Br’mmer
IT has been a flat week for South African Breweries (SAB). Namibia Breweries, fresh from a victory at the Advertising Standards Authority, wants to force the South African brewing giant to disclose all ingredients it uses in brands sold in Namibia.
The Advertising Standards Authority has ruled that elements of the latest SAB ad campaign ‘ part of SAB’s multi-million rand ‘Project Natural’ reported by the M&G last week ‘ are misleading, and has ordered it to scrap the adverts until amended.
At the centre of the dispute between SAB, which controls as much as 97% of the local beer market, and the Namibian brewer are claims and counter-claims over the quality and ‘natural’ properties of their respective beers ‘ and insinuations about the lack of it.
SAB launched Project Natural earlier this year to ‘reassure loyal South African beer drinkers the brands they have enjoyed over the years are world class’, and to ‘address malicious rumours that have been circulating in certain sections of the market’. Of prime concern to SAB was the success Namibia Breweries has had over the past two or three years convincing especially upper-echelon beer drinkers that its products are ‘natural’.
The M&G reported last week that SAB added other ingredients, including potassium meta bi-sulphate as an anti-oxidant, enzymes, a kelp extract and sugar. ‘Finings’, derived from fish, are used in the clarifying process but are filtered out.
The Advertising Standards Authority’s decision, handed down on Thursday last week, faulted SAB’s ads ‘ headed, ‘Not every brewer in the world can turn water, hops and malt into gold’ ‘ on at least six points. It ruled inter alia that the advertisements create a false impression that no further ingredients are added and that unsubstantiated claims are made about the worldwide superiority of SAB brewers and products.
Rubbing salt into SAB’s wounds, Namibia Breweries’ marketing manager, Ernst Ender, this week said his company believed SAB contravened food-labelling regulations in Namibia by not listing the additives on its product labels. His company believed that, unlike South Africa, where beer is exempt from similar legislation, Namibia required full disclosure. ‘We will follow the matter up with the ministry here,’ he said.
The ruling against SAB must have come as a blow. In reply to M&G questions last week ‘ before the ruling ‘ SAB Beer Division public affairs manager Adrian Botha said ‘virtually the entire project [Project Natural] spend had been dedicated to the celebration of the success of SAB’s beers at the recent Australian International Beer Awards’ ‘ the ads now struck down.
But Botha this week made light of the ruling, saying: ‘Clearly … if SAB chooses to amend the advertisement, the theme could again be used as there was no dispute as to whether SAB won the awards in question.
‘The company … will continue with the celebration campaign with the necessary amendments.’
Botha said SAB had discussed its labelling with Namibian authorities some time ago. It was agreed only the ‘basic ingredients’ needed to be listed. ‘The Namibian government and authorities are quite happy with what goes on to our labels,’ he said.