If you've read a newspaper or a news website over the last couple of days, you've probably seen the stories about our good friends at Fentimans having their delicious lemonade branded an 'imitation liquor' by officials in the town of Houlton, Maine, in the good ole US of A. At the centre of the furore is the up to 0.5 per cent alcohol by volume that is created when Fentimans botanically brew their drinks.The Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition, the Maine Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse, the Maine Attorney General's Office, and Houlton Police Chief Butch Asselin (I swear this is true) have all got involved.
Officials from the Aroostook Substance Abuse Prevention Coalition (ASAP) and the Maine Alliance to Prevent Substance Abuse (MAPSA) have maintained that the beverage should be classified as imitation liquor since learning that a Houlton High School student brought a bottle of the lemonade to school several weeks ago.The story trucks on today as the latest developments are that Maine's Attorney Generals office has banned the sale of the lemonade to under 21 year olds.
So, obviously it was our pleasure to help Fentimans with a suitable response, which is what you can see here.
Nice work guys, I've just re-posted this. It's a very funny story and a great response, it made me chuckle when I read it.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant, you couldn't make this story up.
ReplyDeleteNice work on the response too.
anyone remember ZING ?
ReplyDeleteit had the same amount of alcohol, it was the first non -alcoholic "beer"
we tried as kids to get drunk on it, it was impossible
10 Zing= 1 beer maybe!
More silly government mind control please........
What a story! For me there are a number of alarming elements, none related to the alcohol content of the drink:
ReplyDelete1. Who sends their child to school with a glass bottle - surely this alone is a very dangerous hazard, the child could slip and fall whilst drinking, could use it as a weapon - the risks are endless
2. What kind of child would read a drinks label, think, 'oh no I've drunk alcohol' and then go and tell an adult??
3. How dull and uneventful must the lives of the District Attorneys Office staff and the other bodies who got their knickers in a knot about this be to a) have the time to spend looking into this 'crime' and b) to get so angry about it??
I challenge the District Attorney of Maine to get even a little bit tipsy off Fentimans Lemonade - surely this drink is innocent until proven guilty?
Love the poster, especially the beaten up type. Just posted about you guys on my blog.
ReplyDeleteThat's a funny story, you can;t buy that kind of publicity.
ReplyDeleteReally like the ad, good writing, like the art direction too.
It made a Lemonade / lemon drink I was not familiar with known world wide. The attention must have been because of a slow news day. To be labeled "Houlton-Gate". Wow.
ReplyDeleteYep, forget your Watergate, or Iran-gate scandals, The Houlton-gate Lemonade farce is the new big news.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the nice comments about the ad, folks.