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Lion Nathan has been forced to scrap a series of TV commercials to launch a "green" beer after it emerged that a deer had been killed so it could be filmed on a barbecue for final scenes in the ads.
After an internal investigation the brewery company found that its production company, Goodoil, had failed to "source the deer appropriately", the Sydney Morning Herald reported today.
Ironically, a stag is the brand logo of Lion's bestselling beer, Toohey's New.
The production crew filming in the South Island two weeks ago decided it would be easier and cheaper to select a beast for slaughter at a local deer farm, rather than commission a model or a computer-generated image.
The brewer acknowledged that what occurred was insensitive and inconsistent with company guidelines on the treatment of animals, the newspaper reported.
Lion Nathan said the production crew had legally sourced a carcass from a farmer, who had an animal that was to be culled due to old age and was destined for the meatworks.
"Instead of being sold on to the meatworks, the dead deer was diverted for use in the advertisement," it said in a statement.
"Lion Nathan is absolutely committed to the ethical treatment of animals, and despite the considerable costs involved in making the advertisement, we don't intend to air it.
"We are reviewing our management processes to ensure that this kind of incident could not happen again."
Two years ago, a Saatchi & Saatchi ad, which launched the line 'For the Love of Beer' for Toohey's New, used a computer-generated image of a stag being catapulted into the sky. It prompted a number of complaints to Australia's Advertising Standards Bureau, which were subsequently dismissed.
- NZPA
