Prescription Gin pulled over 'irresponsible' design

Jul 12, 2023

Personalised gifting company Mixpixie has agreed to discontinue its Prescription Gin after a complaint was upheld over its medicine-inspired bottle design.

Industry watchdog the Portman Group received a complaint from a member of the public against Mixpixie's Prescription Gin. It was upheld on two counts, with the gin found to be encouraging irresponsible and immoderate consumption, and implying it had therapeutic qualities.

The Independent Complaints Panel (ICP) noted that the bottle was designed to look like prescription medicine due to the shape of the bottle, its name and the use of a green cross on the label, which was an exact copy of the UK's pharmacy cross.

The bottle also included the text ‘Take one swig before each exam. Good luck!’, which the panel considered as encouragement to drink before an exam.

The front of the bottle also featured the statement, ‘Possible side effects: may include extreme relaxation, giddiness and happiness’. This implies a link between consumption and curing physical and mental ailments, the ICP found.

The gin breached the irresponsible consumption rule as it suggested that the drink would make a consumer feel ‘better’, the panel noted. Furthermore, the listing of ‘giddiness’ as a ‘possible side effect’ implied that a certain level of alcohol would have been consumed, the ICP added.

ICP chair Nicola Williams said: "It is wholly irresponsible to present an alcoholic drink as prescription medication and suggest that consumption of it can cure mental and physical ailments.

"In this case, the product also created a link to irresponsible and immoderate consumption which was particularly concerning when the product was encouraging consumption based on health grounds. Caution must be exercised with tongue-in-cheek marketing so that it does not breach the Code."

Following the complaint, Mixpixie said it had added the text, ‘Please note that these are not real prescriptions, they are spoof labels intended as a humoured gin. Please drink responsibly’ as a compulsory checkbox for the customer before placing the order and to the bottle's labels.

Mixpixie has agreed to discontinue the gin and will work with the Portman Group on designing a new label.

In July 2022, complaints against a trio of gins, including two Marks & Spencer liqueurs, were upheld for appealing to under-18s and failing to clearly communicate their alcoholic content.