Luminar wins appeal against ASA ad decision

The Luminar Group has won its appeal against an Advertising Standards Agency (ASA) ruling which said one of its clubs wrongly targeted a 12-year-old with promotional alcohol offers.

The ASA has changed its original verdict and decided a complaint against the nightclub operator will not be upheld following an investigation of an agency which supplied data to Luminar.

The complaint came from a mother after Kuda Bar & Club in York directly mailed her 12-year-old child promoting deals on alcohol.

The ASA originally ruled last November that Luminar must not use the same advert in its current form and urged the operator to ensure its adverts were not directed at people under 18.

However, it has overturned the decision after finding that the data, which had been supplied to Luminar by an agency which in turn received it from a third party supplier, contained incorrect personal information suggesting that the individual was over 18.

The ASA said Luminar was “not at fault” because it had “relied on and had used in good faith” the data supplied.

Tim Howard, head of marketing for the Luminar Group, said: "We do not, under any circumstances, promote alcohol or club events to minors. It would appear that a minor’s name was incorrectly added to the electoral register and, as a result, promotional material was distributed in error and we would like to apologise for any offence caused."