To say everyone should boycott House of Whisky

[Tillow4ever]

I’ve just seen that a company called House of Whisky has created a post on the ALCOHOL SUPPORT board to advertise their company and talk about how they ship their whiskies worldwide etc.

AIBU to think this is a really scummy, low and morally corrupt practice and we should make it backfire on them and boycott their company?

I think it’s disgusting they’ve gone onto a forum intended for people to get help with their alcohol addiction to advertise alcohol for sale. Obviously I have reported their post as it’s advertising anyway, but hopefully people will see this and choose to shop elsewhere with someone who won’t stoop to such depths.

I have marked the image as sensitive (might take a while to appear) - if you have a problematic relationship with alcohol, I would advise you don’t open it. I have only included it as proof of my claim, I don’t want to advertise them further.

I think it's the algorithm that does this. I doubt there's a human behind it.

@smallglassbottleIt’s not an advert. It’s a post. They’ve chosen to create a username with their business as the username, then started a post in alcohol support describing in detail the service they offer etc. Nothing to do with an algorithm. I think the photo is available now - take a look to see what I mean. That’s not an unfortunate accident, that’s a conscious decision to target alcoholics.

Those who say I’m unreasonable I would genuinely like to understand why you think this is ok?

I’ve reported the post to Mumsnet for the very reason you posted

I would go further and send screenshots and complaints to asa and trading standards.
Because this is really really shittycompany behaviour.

If it is real company

YABU to perpetuate the advertising of this non-company that no one has even heard of until you posted. 🤦‍♀️ Own goal really.

I deliberately hid the screenshot so only those who wanted to see the evidence would look (to ensure I wasn’t lying to ruin a companies reputation). I didn’t post it in alcohol support because posting it there is the issue I had with the company. Not sure how else I could communicate to people on a larger scale what the company has done because I think most people can’t mind read (I say most as clearly you must be able to if you think it’s possible to stop shody practices without putting it out there publicly).

I’ve heard of them before - I was looking for a specific bottle of a flavoured Baileys that’s hard to come by as a gift for a friend recently, and the company came up when I was searching.

I am, however, pleased that your vote wasn’t about the company practice, rather you being “one of those” who likes to vote someone’s being unreasonable because you think a course of action should have been obvious to them.

I was wondering if there was someone further to report to - thank you for the suggestions. I saw this company on a Google search for something recently, so I don’t know if they are new maybe. Pretty pore decision making on the part of the person who thought it was a good idea!

It does seem a bit odd to allow a whisky company to advertise on an alcohol support board. Have you messaged their moderators to ask the reasons?

This is stealth advertising and not allowed by MNHQ.

Edit.

The company are advertising on Mumsnet by pretending to be a poster. It happens all the time. Just report the post and it will be deleted.

They are supporting alcohol. The board name may be seen as ambiguous.

It’s not an advert, it was a post. But the post was basically advertising. Clearly a deliberate move on the posters part, and a way to get out of having to pay to advertise I’m sure. I reported it, the post appears to have been removed but I didn’t have an email reply.

How can Mumsnet possible be responsible for a company choosing to break their rules? It wasn’t an advert. I stayed this in my op, I’ve seated it numerous times in responses and you can clearly see in the photo it’s not a paid advert.

They deliberately created a username under their business name.
They deliberately created a post to talk about their products and include a link to their website.
They deliberately selected the Alcohol Support board to put this post on.

MN responded quickly when it was reported, I cannot fault them at all here. If it were a paid for advert, I would have agreed with you.

Really? REALLY? You cannot be serious? You genuinely think that this business went “oh look, a forum designed for people to support drinking alcohol” and had no idea it might be to support people with addiction issues? If you genuinely think that, I know a Nigerian Prince trying to find you to leave you all his wealth when he dies….

I can only speak for myself but you're literally advertising for them.

So their post got removed and you've put it back (albeit on a different thread).

Not a wise move at all on a public forum.

Have mumsnet deleted it now? If so maybe ask them to delete this, you are just doing their advertisement for them at this point. I’ve never heard of that company before you posted them

@2Rebecca was joking.

It's probably a troll tbh but it should be reported - horrible

Yes it does, and obviously I reported it. My issue is not with them advertising by pretending to be a poster. My issue is they’ve deliberately targeted a board where they know alcoholics will be to encourage them to buy from them rather than stay “on the wagon”. There are many other boards they could have posted on - their decision to advertise to alcoholics or people with a dependency on alcohol that they’re using that board to get help stopping was a really low move on their part. I’ve seen people try to give up alcohol - it can be really hard for many of them. Something like this may have been what stopped them succeeding if they were struggling.

This thread and the advert will definitely be deleted.

Ironic that the OP said they couldn't fault how quickly HQ deleted it.

Only for the OP to repost 🤦‍♀️

I kind of hope so, that would be better than a business decision. I’m glad MN acted quickly and removed it.

I’m not someone that will be easily offended, or boycotts all companies for a tiny slight. I don’t care about people drinking alcohol etc. But this felt so ethically wrong, I wanted to call it out. If it was the company, they need it to backfire so spectacularly they NEVER try something like that again.

This is abhorrent. If this company has purposefully targeted their advertising to this forum they should be shut down. I really cant understand why we still allow alcohol advertising. Tobacco advertising was stopped years ago yet we still glamorise alcohol.

Do you really not understand OPs post?