A unionist politician has expressed outrage over a Guinness, Irish whiskey and cream liqueur cocktail sold in American bars as a "car-bomb".
Mr Mark Robinson MLA, of the Democratic Unionist Party, said posters had appeared in New York and San Diego linking the Guinness brewery to the "car-bomb" cocktail
He had called on the brewery to investigate the "tasteless" promotion of the cocktail. "It is essential that this matter is investigated to see if this was authorised by Guinness or was simply done by the bar. Either way, Guinness has a responsibility to see that such messages are not conveyed on their materials," Mr Robinson said.
He had written to Guinness demanding an explanation. "In the aftermath of September 11th, this type of advertising campaign is in extremely poor taste," he added.
However, Guinness emphatically denied that it had authorised the promotion, which it described as inappropriate, and said it planned to open an investigation.
Mr Jude Lynch, a spokesman for Guinness and its parent company Diageo, said the promotion was unauthorised and wholly inappropriate.
"Our view is very much that this is an unlicensed use of the Guinness name, but in the interests of scrutiny we will obviously do a very thorough investigation to ensure there is no linkage between the organisation and the particular publicans that are using the promotion," he said.
"We have a very stringent promotional code of conduct that we believe allows us to ensure that this type of incident doesn't happen, so I can only work on the assumption that some publicans have taken the view that they will take the unlicensed use of the brand iconography . . . in terms of some type of consumer attraction."
- (PA)