(Cpurtesy Pirate Life)

Pirate Life, one of Australia’s most popular craft breweries before being purchased by AB InBev in 2017, recently skated on a complaint which claimed that brewery had made unproven health claims about one of its beers.

The good news is that ABAC, a quasi-regulatory system in Australia that oversees marketing guidelines, has dismissed a complaint arguing that Pirate Life had deliberately made a unsupported health about a beer in its marketing….

The bad news is that the complaint was ever made to begin with…

At issue is Pirate Life’s Kiwifruit & Cherry Sour Ale which the brewery markets as being “infused with over 750 kg of fruit pro-biotic Lactobacillus – so it’s good for the gut! Well, sort of!”

The complainant objected to Pirate Life’s website product including the use of the word ‘probiotic’ as a description of Lactobacillus, arguing that the word suggest that beer can improve your health.

The complaint also critiqued the suggestion that the product contributes to daily recommended fruit serves by saying “Had your fruit today?” in the advertising copy.

ABAC stipulates that there should not be a suggestion in any marketing materials that an alcoholic beverage offers any “therapeutic benefit”.

Pirate Life owners Carlton and United Breweries (CUB) which Asahi acquired from Anheuser-Busch  in a huge $10 billion deal, responded to the claim, “saying their copy was a humorous interpretation of health trends,” meant to be funny and not taken seriously…

In its very sane dismissal of the complaint against the Adelaide, South Australia-headquartered brewery, the ABAC adjudication panel opted in favor of humor, or as the Aussies over health industry orthodoxy…

“Australians have a robust sense of humor and will generally understand when a serious claim is being made and distinguish this from an item which is light-hearted or ironic,”

According to BrewsNews this is the eleventh time that ABAC has received a complaint about Pirate Life marketing in the past 12 months…far more than any other Australian brand its alcohol industry.

Want more on Pirate Life” There’s this…

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