THE Grand National, one of the world’s leading sporting brands, has been associated with drinking since 1984.
At least back then with Seagram and its subsidiary, Martell Cognac, there was a touch of the upmarket.
Crabbie’s alcoholic ginger beer, on the other hand, is a stablemate of Lambrini, famous for its association with, in their words, lower income women who like getting a bit "pissed”.
Can you imagine any other
top global sporting event
taking on board a sponsor
with a name like Crabbie’s?
Mind you, at least Huyton-based owners Halewood International are trying to position Crabbie’s a bit higher up the social scale with its toffy TV characters George and Camilla.
Long association: The
National's first Ginger (McCain)
with John HalewoodNevertheless, I’m not sure whether this constant association with drinks firms is healthy. Can you imagine any other top global sporting event taking on board a sponsor with a name like Crabbie’s?
For many visitors to the Aintree festival, the sights in the city centre later at night are sometimes more memorable than the racing itself (just try to recall this year’s winner).
It’s not just a festival of racing, it’s a carnival of boozing too. Young men, ties half skew, shirts out, stumbling and shouting on the streets while gaggles of women tottering in high heels displaying acres of flesh look like the result of some bizarre social experiment.
Of course I am not saying all this is bad, people are allowed to enjoy themselves and I’ve rarely seen any trouble over the years, but having a drinks firm on board in a high profile way just reinforces this sort of image.
Halewood International will receive massive coverage with 600m TV viewers worldwide tuning into the Grand National itself. And although it is a successful local company its track record on promoting alcohol to young people is pretty grim - or a triumph - depending on how you look at it.
In 2003, a marketing executive told me his mission was to appeal to people with "promiscuous drinking habits" and that he was disappointed that planned drinks called Sorted and Loaded didn’t get the nod.
I had met him at company headquarters in Huyton because in those days, the late company founder John Halewood did not give press interviews.
Crabbie's - more
upmarket than LambriniHowever, as I was leaving he arrived trim and tanned, fresh from a Caribbean holiday. He ushered me into his office to catch a horse of his running in the 1.30 at Lingfield. It actually won.
It turned out he was a very affable chap, presiding over a business full of bright, young things. I asked him about Lambrini but he remained coy, trotting out some marketing type speak.
Mr Halewood famously won the Grand National with his horse Amberleigh House, trained by Red Rum legend Ginger McCain, in 2004.
A House of Commons select committee has investigated drinks’ firms’ use of advertising material in terms of attracting young people and associating with sporting events. Halewood International came under the spotlight.
In material obtained from the firm and its advertising agencies, the committee discovered that in 2006, as part of market research for Lambrini, young women were asked to create mood boards for the drink and were helpfully handed the written expressions “getting pissed”, “pole dancing” and “drinking games”.
I would have thought a sporting brand leader would have had higher aspirations than this tie-up. It was not so long ago someone declared Aintree Racecourse aspired to be the "Ascot of the North’".
Jaguar Land Rover, there’s a local brand you would be proud to hook up with.
I first covered Aintree as a reporter back in the dark days just after property developer Bill Davies almost killed it off. Its resurgence to national and international prominence since then has been thrilling to see and it remains a glorious spectacle.
Huge attempts have been made to make the race safer in recent years. I would have thought the ending of brewer John Smith’s sponsorship of the race this year could have heralded in a new era of support, rather than resorting to the easy option of yet another swig of booze. Do needs really equal must?
