Marika Hill

Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, advertisements shall not condone or encourage irresponsible or immoderate drinking. West Liquor breached the rules.

An Auckland liquor store's social media post calling for people's "craziest memory" involving alcohol has been found to have breached advertising rules.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled the comments posted on West Liquor's Facebook page encouraged excessive drinking and could promote dangerous behaviour.

People were asked to recall their "craziest memory" with a certain type of alcohol to go in the draw to win a $200 Prezzy card on April 9.

The Trusts, which ran West Liquor, deleted the post and apologised before the ASA investigation was carried out.

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Two complaints were laid with the ASA in May for the West Auckland liquor store breaching the principles governing alcohol promotion.

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Simon Wickham, chief executive of The Trusts, has apologised for the social media post that sparked two advertising complaints.

On the Facebook post, people described excessive drinking, including drinking half a bottle of Jack Daniels and "getting smashed", according to the ASA decision.

"We believe the comments posted promotes, implies, and encourages irresponsible drinking," the ASA found.

The social media post may have also promoted dangerous drinking practises, the ruling said.

Jumping off trains, trying to get into a train station when drunk and climbing trees after drinking were among the unsafe practises described in the post's comments, the ASA decision said.

Alcohol Healthwatch, who was one of the complainants, said the stories depicted heavy alcohol consumption and "really dangerous and adverse outcomes".

Executive director Nicki Jackson said they were satisfied with the outcome of the ASA investigation and the fact the post was removed from social media.

Another complainant said the posts were not age restricted so anyone could read the comments.

"This is extremely disappointing to see coming from an organisation that has been set up to sell alcohol responsibly," the complainant told ASA.

The Trusts, which managed the sale of alcohol in West Auckland, took down their Facebook page while a review of all the material on the page was conducted.

Chief executive Simon Wickham said the organisation took full responsibility and acted promptly to address the concerns before complaints arose.

"We accept their decision and we are sorry to have caused any offence to those who viewed the comments.

"We apologise and we've taken actions to prevent such things occurring in future."

Under the Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act, the advertising code stated advertisements "shall not feature, imply, condone or encourage irresponsible or immoderate drinking".

 - Stuff