Trade blasts "binge" website
7 September, 2006
Publicans in uproar as they find their pubs on irresponsible site
Licensees have blasted a controversial website which they claim promotes binge-drinking and lists their premises without their consent.
Pissed.co.uk advertises itself as a "survival guide to beer, kebabs and women" and in its directory lists hundreds of pubs and bars across the country.
The site has also incurred the wrath of InBev UK, as it uses images of its brand Stella Artois. The company is now acting against the site to have the images removed. "They are there without our knowledge or consent," an InBev spokesperson said.
Alison Smith, licensee at Bar One Nine, in Keynsham, Somerset, found her pub was on the site after doing a Google search. "I'm really upset that we've appeared on this website without our consent. I think the pub industry in general suffers from these sorts of websites," she complained.
"It goes against everything that The Publican's Proud of Pubs campaign is about."
Robbie Cullen, licensee at the Coach and Horses, on Fleet Street, in London, was also unaware his pub was listed. "I'm really not happy about being associated with a website like this," he said. "We are a responsible drinking pub and all my staff work hard at keeping it that way. We have lots of posters advertising the Drinkaware campaign."
Lou Hogg of the Old Crown, in Hesket Newmarket, Cumbria, said: "It looks tacky and I'm really not happy about it. Publicans have a responsibility not to promote this sort of thing."
Alongside a list of recommended pubs and bars the site also offers a list of "adult venues" and shows a picture of a kebab with the caption "the pissed ritual".
Lancashire-based brewer Thwaites was alerted to the site after a complaint from one of its licensees. Retail director Paul Howarth said he was "staggered" by the site. "I don't want our pubs to be associated with this misuse of alcohol, that's not what we're about," he said. He also pointed that the list of facilities his pubs offered was incorrect.
The site also received condemnation from the British Beer & Pub Association (BBPA). Mark Hastings, the BBPA's communications director, said: "It would be preferable if this site put forward the pleasures of social drinking rather than the tired old images of drunkenness."
All efforts by The Publican to contact Result Media Ltd, the company behind the site, have proved fruitless.
Readers' comments
I've been a pub dog for many a year, but my owners just woke up. Yes, the local pub is a centre for the community, but it is also the gateway to profit for those controlling interests that proclaim their support for sensible drinking. I have observed (and been involved in) more than a few incidents in my time. Normal people go off their heads and commit extraordinary acts. My masters bar them, the pub company put up their rents and wholesale prices in the face of falling barrelage and they leave, churned out of the system. Probably a holding company is brought in who just wants sales and is ignorant of any history, lets the smiliing barred back in and a year or so later, a new chump is recruited who inherits the problem again. Trouble is the barred people who keep the trade depressed in the first place are those who are mostly semi functioning alchoholics. Anyone from the Brewers or Pubco's like to explain ?.
I've got to laugh at this simply because.. Why the hell are publicans worrying about binge drinking for? Why because there afraid of losing their licenses due to new regulations via the Police. When these regulations were not in place you wouldnt worry if someone was drunk out of their minds as long as they were putting money in your tills. I have worked in the licensing trade for Threshers and a few more companies but there was only two rules, dont sell to children or someone who was totally over the limit. Binge drinking is overkill, alcholism is the real deal, but you the publicans or the brewerys don't really care about that. You need to sell enough alchol, or serve enough food otherwise you go under. You don't want to go under, so you carry on serving. I live opposite a pub, and the same people are in day after day after day, but they might have one or two pints putting £7 in your till, but you don't think, damm he's a regular punter but has he got more of a drink problem, than someone going out on a friday night after a weeks work and getting totally smashed. Binge drinking is fine if you can handle it at weekends, when you drink 7 days a week, 365 days a year, thats when people have a real problem. Close your pubs down, stop serving alchol and stick too soft drinks and meals. I bet you wouldnt.
Just because the domain name is "pissed" it doesn't necessarily mean that the site is encouraging the people to drink irresponsibly. I find many of the publicans you have quoted as hyprocrites as how many of their clients are "pissed" on an evening? If the site was called "legless" or "paraletic" then maybe you've got a case. To be "pissed" does not impy being socially irresponsible! Before you comment, no I don't have anything to do with the site!