Carlsberg advert ruled offside

A World Cup television advertisement for Carlsberg lager featuring two Irish soccer internationals has been flagged offside - …

A World Cup television advertisement for Carlsberg lager featuring two Irish soccer internationals has been flagged offside - because one of the players is aged under 25.

The advert shows Jason McAteer dreaming of scoring the winner against Brazil in the World Cup final.

But complaints were made over the involvement of striker Robbie Keane, aged 22.

Tonight the complaints were upheld by the Advertising Standards Authority because of a code that relates to the advertising of alcohol.

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The relevant section declares: "Anyone depicted in an alcoholic advertisement should be over 25, and appear to be over 25."

The producers of the advert maintained that they had not known they were contravening the code because they were using existing footage of the Irish World Cup team, and that neither the advertising authority nor the Irish RTE TV network had pointed out the mistake in advance.

A second complaint, centering on the appearance of McAteer, was not upheld.

PA